Barbara Cassani, who has been appointed to lead London’s Olympics bid, came in to the full London Assembly meeting this morning to answer our questions. The Mayor, Tony Winterbottom from the LDA and Barry Broe from Transport for London accompanied her to aid her with any questions which she could not answer.

Very impressive woman. She set the background to her role in the bid very ably and the questioning, at least to her, was generally supportive. The bid being very important to London, no one wanted to particularly rock the Olympic boat.

But then, life happens. In the Transport for London brief for the Olympics, they state that London rail, tube, etc will have a single control and command structure . Now we have all been fighting for this since the establishment of London Government – but the Train Operating Companies (TOCs) and the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) won’t play ball. The TOCs are a law unto themselves and their interest lies only in their long haul profitable train journeys. Try and persuade them to stop and put some service into the London commuter end and they virtually tell all and sundry where they can stuff London.

I am hugely supportive of our Olympic bid. I think it will be a fantastic coup and a catalyst for all sorts of good things to happen in London. BUT – a tinge of reality has to make our package believable to the International Olympic Committee. So I asked if Barbara was aware that the ‘single command and control policy’ might be a ‘pigs might fly policy’? I want Barbara to be armed with the facts so that she can make sure our bid is a winning bid – not a pie in the sky bid.

The current Mayor leapt in, and whilst admitting that the TOCs and the SRA were impossible to deal with – stated that if they couldn’t reach an amicable agreement on this, the Government would step in and legislate to force compliance.

Well – I hope he is right. But just in case that is another one of his unsubstantiated claims, I am asking Simon Hughes to table a question for Prime Minister’s Question Time asking the government to commit to guaranteeing that this is the case – and in writing!

Far be it from me to doubt Mayor Livingstone’s word…