So all of London should pay more council tax and subsidise the travel of all of those who commute from outside? Like heck, l'd rather put fares up.
Signed up to by one B Johnson as Mayor of London....
The challenge is that the mayor has few ways to raise money for TfL. The current fares funding was only sustainable with the very busy network that existed pre covid. Fares are regressive with the rich paying less on fares as a proportion of income.
I think you are mis-understanding how a levy works. The Greater London Authority cannot charge a levy in one borough and not another and neither can the other bodies that are able to make precepts on the Council Tax. Some of the boroughs have challenged the system of levies and precepts on the basis that they are for things of no benefit to their residents but those challenges have always been dismissed. If you go down the line of only paying for things that you use then chaos will ensue and no region wide services or infrastructure would get funded.
You could add that the congestion charge and fares income covers the cost of maintaining trunk roads in London.
Is that true? The London Borough of Bromley challenged the Greater London Council's policy of reducing fares back in the early 1980s on the grounds that it increased the subsidy required from ratepayers, arguing this was unfair as there were no underground stations in the borough. Bromley won their case and GLC's 2 appeals both failed so they had to raise fares again
It is recognised that you don't like paying for anything. No-one, nor any one opinion is representative of everyone.
But that was not the same as a levy or precept
By no stretch of the imagination can the downturn in TfL's revenue be attributed to cars.
You didn't foresee Covid and nor did anyone else.
The main way to improve bus speeds isn't to give over space to cars, it is to provide bus lanes (ideally separate from the bike lanes!) designed for higher speeds, with proper enforcement to keep cars, whether loading or driving, out of them
What exactly is the traffic if not cars? The buses would move much more freely without them. Its a bizarre notion that buses or cyclists hold up traffic, when 99% of the time it is other cars
Traffic consists of cars, taxis, vans and lorries, refuse vehicles, ambulances, fire engines, buses, police vehicles, funeral hearses and cyclists. I haven't noticed anyone suggesting that buses and cyclists are the cause of traffic queues. There's nothing bizarre in the idea that reducing capacity has consequences.
Bus lanes and bus cameras were introduced during Ken Livingstone's period in office.
I am aware london has bus lanes, and fixed location enforcement cameras, but I was suggesting:
Is the taxi driver lobby as strong as it used to be?
Im sure once through running is instigated you will see a significant uplift. Also they will cull the central line service frequency to save a few more quid.
An excellent post. I would say though that screwing London does actually screw the Blue Wall. The big problem for the current government is that the Red and Blue Walls have pretty much zero common interest.
Ahem! The number of bus passenger journeys in London outweighs those by rail several-fold.
Is that actually a plan or just an assumption?
Rather sick of everyone thinking the opening of the Elizabeth core means the Central line becomes irrelevant. It may come as a surprise to some people, but not every Central line journey has Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Liverpool Street or Stratford as both an origin and destination. There are many, many journeys to and from Oxford Circus, Bank, White City and Holborn for a start.
It's notable that you don't attempt to rebut any of the arguments I've put forward. Incidentally, I never vote Tory and I recognised Boris Johnson for what he was long before most people did.
Including London Underground and DLR? Is that the number of journeys or journey miles?
I believe the number of bus lanes has been slightly reduced by handing some over to cyclists. Most roads in London are not wide enough to have both a bus lane and a separate cycle lane. Private hire vehicles are banned from bus lanes except to pick up or drop off. Cameras inside buses were introduced by Ken Livingstone.
Drop-off and pick-up are the most disruptive to bus service though, so that should absolutely be banned!
In my part of N London, the LTNs have pushed traffic onto main roads. As a result, buses have slowed down considerably (bus lanes would not be physically possible). Because of this I now use the bus LESS and am more likely to use my car...
That's an extreme attitude. Moorfields Eye Hospital is in City Road which, if memory serves, has a bus lane outside. If someone with severe mobility problems has an appointment at Moorfields, they should be denied the right to be dropped off outside?
Thank you. A balanced point of view from someone who, like me, has experience of how this policy works in practice.In my part of N London, the LTNs have pushed traffic onto main roads. As a result, buses have slowed down considerably (bus lanes would not be physically possible). Because of this I now use the bus LESS and am more likely to use my car...
As a side comment, the LTN has also diverted traffic away from large houses owned by the comparatively well-off and towards flats over shops populated by the less wealthy. All done by a "centre-left" council
It is a good thing that the council are not playing to their base. It’s functioning government.
