Who is in control of Boris's Bus?

[sprunt]

Let's not forget that the buses were designed by Johnson's pal Heatherwick, who he was a fan of channeling work towards , ending in the garden bridge fiasco.

 

[Master29]

Let's not forget that the buses were designed by Johnson's pal Heatherwick, who he was a fan of channeling work towards , ending in the garden bridge fiasco.

A company that has since gone into liquidation I might add.

 

[DerekC]

The latest fiasco over the appointment and sacking of one Sabisky, the refusal to take any action in response to the floods and the dilatoriness in responding to the problems with cruise passengers marooned in Yokohama all suggest a complete lack of competence in this Government. The thing that surprises me is how quickly it is happening. What's going on in there?

Boris did appear to be a moderately competent Mayor of London - I am wondering if he had an efficient No 2 there who was sensible and did all the work, whereas here he has Dominic Cummings!

 

[najaB]

Boris did appear to be a moderately competent Mayor of London - I am wondering if he had an efficient No 2 there who was sensible and did all the work, whereas here he has Dominic Cummings!

Go to the head of the class, methinks.

 

[Grumpy Git]

"The country elects the government it deserves"!

 

[Goldfish62]

Boris did appear to be a moderately competent Mayor of London - I am wondering if he had an efficient No 2 there who was sensible and did all the work, whereas here he has Dominic Cummings!

His deputy mayors did all the work. He just turned at launches of schemes that his predecessor initiated and commanded that money be p*ssed down the drain on various vanity projects.

 

[Meerkat]

His deputy mayors did all the work. He just turned at launches of schemes that his predecessor initiated and commanded that money be p*ssed down the drain on various vanity projects.

Isn’t that how a boss is supposed to work - pick good subordinates and let them get on with it?

 

[najaB]

Isn’t that how a boss is supposed to work - pick good subordinates and let them get on with it?

Pretty much, yes. He did a good job of it as Mayor of London, he's not doing it (so far) as PM.

 

[Meerkat]

Pretty much, yes. He did a good job of it as Mayor of London, he's not doing it (so far) as PM.

How not? They only just started.

 

[najaB]

How not? They only just started.

Really?! See posts above (e.g. #63).

 

[Busaholic]

I can't agree that he did a good job as Mayor of London. He had a compliant press, particularly the Evening Standard under Sarah Sands, with major contributions from Andrew Gilligan. The New Bus for London MIGHT have had something to show for itself if the rear open door concept had lasted, which was never going to happen, as all at TfL knew and doubtless informed Boris Johnson all along, but got conveniently ignored. Thomas Hedderwick was involved with the disastrous Garden Bridge project as well as being the chosen bus designer, and how that came about has never been satisfactorily examined. The glorified skilift in Docklands losing a packet, the secondhand water cannons sold at scrap value, Johnson's refusal to return from holiday during the Tottenham riots and ensuing widespread London disorder, the concentration on taking the Northern Line to Battersea at the expense of far worthier projects, even (in retrospect) the colossal failure to examine in any detail what was happening (or not happening) at Crossrail, the decision to allow the comparatively small number of bicycling commuters to be allowed precedence over all other groups, particularly bus passengers. If Sadiq Khan had done 10% of this, the Standard, Mail, Telegraph etc would have been up in arms, but an Etonian buffoon? Fill your boots, you're entitled!

 

[najaB]

I can't agree that he did a good job as Mayor of London.

When I said he did a good job, I largely meant by not actually doing too much - yes he had some notable failures, but he largely was happy to grab some headlines and let the staff get on with their jobs.

 

[edwin_m]

Whereas the Cabinet don't strike me as particular capable, probably not surprising as the more sensible ones realized Brexit was a bad idea and are now out for one reason or another. Cummings may be good at making a noise and persuading people but he doesn't actually have much track record of delivering things other than campaigns.

 

[DerekC]

Whereas the Cabinet don't strike me as particular capable, probably not surprising as the more sensible ones realized Brexit was a bad idea and are now out for one reason or another. Cummings may be good at making a noise and persuading people but he doesn't actually have much track record of delivering things other than campaigns.

I think that's an important point - Boris has hitched his wagon (sorry, bus) to someone who is successful as a campaigner but has no idea how to deliver anything else. I don't think the situation is stable, though. The cabinet may be signed-up Borisophiles but they won't stand for being ordered about by Cummings for very long, particularly if their popularity begins to slip.

 

[bramling]

When I said he did a good job, I largely meant by not actually doing too much - yes he had some notable failures, but he largely was happy to grab some headlines and let the staff get on with their jobs.

To be fair, comparing Boris to the other two mayors is not exactly starting from a particularly high base. Least odious of the three is hardly a ringing endorsement - one who has subsequently been found to have a creepy obsession with concentration camps, and the other who seems to feel it appropriate to plaster the Underground with taxpayer-funded “the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has...” posters.

Out of the three I’d say a semi-successful attempt at procuring an iconic bus for our capital city isn’t such a bad thing.

 

[najaB]

Out of the three I’d say a semi-successful attempt at procuring an iconic bus for our capital city isn’t such a bad thing.

Oh, like I said, the idea behind the new Routemaster was sound. It was the implementation that stinks - of either ineptitude or corruption.

 

[edwin_m]

To be fair, comparing Boris to the other two mayors is not exactly starting from a particularly high base. Least odious of the three is hardly a ringing endorsement - one who has subsequently been found to have a creepy obsession with concentration camps, and the other who seems to feel it appropriate to plaster the Underground with taxpayer-funded “the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has...” posters.

Out of the three I’d say a semi-successful attempt at procuring an iconic bus for our capital city isn’t such a bad thing.

Leaving the buses aside, how much do those posters cost relative to the money wasted on the Garden Bridge and the Dangleway?

 

[Goldfish62]

Pretty much, yes. He did a good job of it as Mayor of London, he's not doing it (so far) as PM.

He heralded the decline of the bus network by removing the western extension of the CCZ, announcing that there would no longer be any hierarchy of road vehicles, abolishing the bus priority budget and rushing through ill-conceived cycle lanes.

 

[najaB]

He heralded the decline of the bus network by removing the western extension of the CCZ, announcing that there would no longer be any hierarchy of road vehicles, abolishing the bus priority budget and rushing through ill-conceived cycle lanes.

Again, when I said "he did a good job of it" I meant (mostly) getting out of the way of his underlings.

 

[Grumpy Git]

Apparently each of the (1,000) new Routemasters cost £355,000. That is an astronomical amount of money for a bus. Even more-so when you consider the quantities of scale that an order of 1,000 should have brought.

So Boris spent £355 million just on a new bus fleet, wow. I would say that is at least 2.5x as much as what they ought to have cost and maybe a lot less for such a whopping order?

 

[sprunt]

Again, when I said "he did a good job of it" I meant (mostly) getting out of the way of his underlings.

So are you saying the blame of the list of bad things you quoted should fall on the underlings? That doesn't reflect well on him viz-a-viz the "Appoint good people and get out of the way" thing, does it?

 

[najaB]

So are you saying the blame of the list of bad things you quoted should fall on the underlings? That doesn't reflect well on him viz-a-viz the "Appoint good people and get out of the way" thing, does it?

Nope, because the other part of the post was "but he largely was happy to grab some headlines and let the staff get on with their jobs." - the worst biggest failures were the headline grabbing stuff (e.g. going tilting after bendy buses and replacing them with overpriced new Routemasters).

 

[Goldfish62]

Apparently each of the (1,000) new Routemasters cost £355,000. That is an astronomical amount of money for a bus. Even more-so when you consider the quantities of scale that an order of 1,000 should have brought.

So Boris spent £355 million just on a new bus fleet, wow. I would say that is at least 2.5x as much as what they ought to have cost and maybe a lot less for such a whopping order?

Yes, that was the price per bus. Of course they're now old technology and have never performed as well as other hybrids on the market at the same time as them.

 

[PG]

Apparently each of the (1,000) new Routemasters cost £355,000. That is an astronomical amount of money for a bus. Even more-so when you consider the quantities of scale that an order of 1,000 should have brought.

So Boris spent £355 million just on a new bus fleet, wow. I would say that is at least 2.5x as much as what they ought to have cost and maybe a lot less for such a whopping order?

And yet the company that built them (Wrights) still went under...

 

[najaB]

And yet the company that built them (Wrights) still went under...

They weren't overpriced because Wrightbus was making a killing. They were overpriced because the design was poor.

 

[Grumpy Git]

And yet the company that built them (Wrights) still went under...

I hope we haven't heard the last of that sorry tale from whats being said about donations to others?

 

[bramling]

Leaving the buses aside, how much do those posters cost relative to the money wasted on the Garden Bridge and the Dangleway?

I don’t care if the posters cost £0.01p or £1 million, to me they’re an abuse of position using a public transport system for political propaganda purposes. If TFL didn’t report to the mayor then I bet they would have refused to do it.

Perhaps for balance we could also see a “The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has trashed TFL’s finances with his fares freeze so you won’t be getting upgrades on various lines and we can barely operate the service advertised now in some areas”, or even “Violent crime has increased under this Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, with London now seeing a high rate of stabbings and acid attacks.” I won’t hold my breath on either of those!

 

[sprunt]

Perhaps in December we should have had "The previous mayor of London trashed TfL's finances by agreeing with the then Chancellor that TfL's annual grant from central government would be abolished after he had left office, while that same chancellor was also making massive cuts to the Metropolitan Police"?

 

[bb21]

I don’t care if the posters cost £0.01p or £1 million, to me they’re an abuse of position using a public transport system for political propaganda purposes. If TFL didn’t report to the mayor then I bet they would have refused to do it.

All three mayors did pretty much the same willy-wagging in the usual way politicians do.

Perhaps for balance we could also see a “The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has trashed TFL’s finances with his fares freeze so you won’t be getting upgrades on various lines and we can barely operate the service advertised now in some areas”, or even “Violent crime has increased under this Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, with London now seeing a high rate of stabbings and acid attacks.” I won’t hold my breath on either of those!

At least Khan trashed TfL's finances while benefitting the travelling public, mainly the poor who travel more on buses.

Boris trashed TfL's finances offering, well, ...

 

[Ianno87]

I don’t care if the posters cost £0.01p or £1 million, to me they’re an abuse of position using a public transport system for political propaganda purposes. If TFL didn’t report to the mayor then I bet they would have refused to do it.

I suppose Boris splashing a fortune on a cable car (that has no rational transport purpose) for no other reason than his vanity and basic self-promotion is no different then?