Caroline Pidgeon’s transport newsletter number 10

• [Jan 30] WELCOME to the latest edition of my quarterly transport newsletter, which gives you a flavour of some of the key transport issues in London and the work I am doing as our transport spokesperson at the London Assembly.

The New Year has seen a massive increase in fares across all modes of transport. In London the Mayor decided to scrap a number of outer London travelcards and has increased single bus fares up to £1.30, a staggering 44% increase since he was elected. A campaign pack for Lib Dem members is now available with useful information on the fare hikes, a transport survey and information on our One Hour Bus Ticket. If you are not able to access this but would like a copy then please do get in touch.

I have had two opportunities in January to quiz the Mayor on important issues. Last week at the Transport plenary I pursued the issue of the Mayor's 'new bus for London' and whether it provided value for money for Londoners. When the Mayor got elected he made it very clear that he would take bendy buses off our streets and he would bring in a new accessible routemaster bus with a conductor on board so that passengers could hop on and hop off. Most people thought that bendy buses would simply be replaced by these new buses. However, I have uncovered that the Mayor has spent £7.8 million on developing his new bus and the reality is that all we will see on the streets of London by the time of the next election is 5 buses. Each bus will cost around £1.56 million compared to a regular double decker which costs around £190,000.

In addition, the hop on-hop off platform will only be in operation with a conductor at peak hours, Monday to Friday. So the rest of the time, the back doors will be closed and it will operate like every other double decker in London - just with three doors instead of two!

The cost of getting rid of bendy buses cannot be overlooked either. Some of the contracts were due to carry on beyond 2012 so I have no doubt the Mayor will be having to buy the bus companies out of their contracts to run these buses - at yet more cost to Londoners.

This week I have questioned the Mayor on his poor performance in relation to improving the lot for rail passengers. The Mayor made a very clear promise in his election manifesto:

"Above all, I will stand up for rail commuters in London and champion their cause by working tirelessly with the companies who operate our railways to improve the dire service". In his manifesto the Mayor particularly highlighted fighting for "manned stations at night".

Apart from the London Overground service which Transport for London operates very well, the Mayor has failed to negotiate with the Train Operating Companies. There are no additional staff working at night at railway stations, passenger information is appalling - you only have to look at the online blogs during the snow - and rail commuters are not seeing the support that was promised.

The Mayor has been pushing the Government for the power to jointly award rail franchises that affect London. However, this is difficult given that the train companies operate services outside of the capital. I therefore suggested to Boris that he should start negotiating now in order to take over some of the suburban rail services in London when the franchises come up in 2014. After a long exchange, the Mayor did agree to consider this. I'll keep you posted on how this develops.

Oystercard rip-off

As featured in the Evening Standard, Transport for London has admitted that the problem of passengers being ripped off while using Oyster significantly increased during 2010, to a total of £60 million.

The information was revealed to me in FOI requests. The explanation provided by TfL for this significant overcharging is mistakes made by ticket barriers, both at tube and railway stations. In cases where the barriers are not working properly, are left open or where the card isn't swiped accurately, Oyster cards are automatically charged the maximum possible single fare of £6, irrespective of what journey is actually made by passengers.

This is an insult to passengers, many of whom swipe their cards in good faith. I am pushing TfL to publish the stations where there are real problems of overcharging so that passengers are aware and action can be taken. I have also written to local papers across London asking for Londoners' experiences of overcharging and whether there are particular stations where the machines just don't work properly or where there isn't a machine available to swipe out after a certain hour. I have received a good range of case studies already and will be putting these to Transport for London in due course. Do get in touch if you have any examples.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if I can help with any issue.

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