London transport awards

Posted on 26th Mar 2004 by Lynne Featherstone

Go on the tube to Green Park. Red lipstick, high heels and the Jubilee line are not a great combination – but needs must. Totter down Piccadilly to hotel and into reception. Immediately gravitate to table seating plan to find I am on table No 2 (not quite the ticket – yet!) as a guest of Transport for London.

The evening is the London transport awards ceremony. The Robert Gordon University (which is basically David Begg who is Labour’s top adviser on transport and generally all-round good egg) had previously done this at the national level – but this was the first London one.

Of course, given that London and Transport are currently synonymous and sexy – this was a very over-subscribed event with over a hundred people wanting tickets that were sold out very early on. All the transport stars were there – Peter Hendy (MD Street Management, TfL), Tim O’Toole (MD London Underground/TfL), John Weight, (Chief Exec

Metronet). Dave Wetzel, (Vice Chair TfL Board), Derek Turner (ex TfL and the man who introduced congestion charging to London) and many others including John Snow – who was to compare the awards themselves.

Chitter chatter, chitter chatter at the pre-dinner reception. Tim O’Toole had clearly been reading this blog and was laughing (I think laughing) about my references to him as a schmoozing American lawyer type. He said that I made him sound like a snake-oil car salesman! And why couldn’t I have mentioned that he managed train companies. I explained it was meant to be a compliment (I like smart Americans who schmooze). Actually, I have a very high regard for him and Peter Hendy in their management skills – that doesn’t mean I won’t give them a hard time – that’s my job!

Peter Hendy had left a message on my ‘phone the previous evening saying he wanted to brief me on the bendy buses that keep bursting into flame. So he came over to ask why I hadn’t called him back. Basically, I had just been tied up non-stop. However, I did appreciate that he had called to brief me. I think the key point about the bendy buses is that as far as I can gather they are not bursting into flames because they are bendy – but because there is a manufacturing fault of some sort. So a manufacturers’ recall is a good thing!

Into the dinner. I am next to Peter Field who has the power to give and take away from bus franchise companies outside of London – an interesting dinner companion and on my other side, Ben Plowden who is borough liaison for TfL. Dinner passes happily barring my losing a filling and half a tooth – which while not painful in itself is cutting my poor tongue to ribbons.

Then we come to the awards themselves. I won’t troll you through the lot – suffice to say that the best innovation, the best borough, the best this and the best that were all sponsored and awarded. I was pleased to see appropriate recognition of the companies and authorities who are putting real effort into advancing transport in London. Of course, one of the big winners of the evening (I think it was for most innovative) was Transport for London for the Congestion Charge – rightly deserved in my view!

Buggies on buses

Posted on 19th Jan 2004 by Lynne Featherstone

Meet Italian mother with twin buggy, twins and local LibDem councillor at a bus stop in Surrey Quays. This poor woman has tried to get on many a bus with her double buggy – only to be left standing as bus driver after bus driver refuses her entrance.

I had already met London Transport’s Peter Hendy and raised this issue around bus driver behaviour with him. He is thinking of removing bus drivers’ discretion about whether or not to let on such buggies.

Obviously if the bus is full, it is not possible for a double buggy unfolded to be boarded – but at all other times they should be allowed on. Just another aspect of bus driver behaviour to campaign on – along with mobile phones, driving too fast, stopping abruptly and not putting down the disabled ramp.

Of course – these few rotten drivers – spoil it for the many very good ones who, Lord knows, battle against the worst that London can throw at them day and night and get pipsqueak wages compared to tube drivers who have really good conditions – and no traffic!

Bus driver behaviour

Posted on 4th Dec 2003 by Lynne Featherstone

I led deputation of representatives from older peoples’ organisations to Peter Hendy to present views on bus driver behaviour.

I have been leading a big campaign for the last couple of years to try and get the bus companies and Transport for London to up the standard not only of bus driving, but also of behaviour. Of course, there are loads of really good,

sweet drivers – but according to my post bag there also a load of not so good ones.

I had been conducting a survey gradually across London’s boroughs and had compiled the results to date for the meeting as well as a list of individual cases of injury and, sadly, one death due to bad driving.

The overall results indicated that about 85% of people had experienced bad driving. The main complaints were: driving too fast, stopping to abruptly, not drawing into the curb, using a mobile phone, not putting down the ramp and driving without concern for the bus user or other traffic.

It was a very good meeting and Peter Hendy (TfL’s MD for surface transport) went through everything with us. Some good things are being done on driver training – but it was clear that training and retraining will take years. Better I thought, was his rather robust approach to engineering progress, whereby he was looking at perhaps changing the breaking mechanisms and looking at speed limiters. Perhaps engineering changes and better and more training will result in a real change in the future.