Tag Archives: tfl

Not so much a Mayor for London as a Mayor for Labour

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I go into City Hall this morning for two meetings. The first with my MPA officer and my police researcher to prepare the planning for the next meeting of the panel I chair on Stop & Search (implementing the recommendations of the scrutiny). We also discuss the speech I am to make to about 150 police officers including all the borough commanders on 19th April.

Then a meeting with a Transport for London officer about the shenanigans that have been going on with the Immigration Service ‘fishing’ at stations etc. TfL have now stopped the practise and developed an agreed protocol on operations. The Immigration Service were being opportunistic and lazy in my view – as the TfL chap said far better that they should spend their time trapping illegal taxi touts as opposed to people just using public transport.

Now, as you may know – I’m not always Mayor Ken’s greatest fan! Someone points out to me Ken’s revenge! He slags me off in the Socialist Worker. His ire has been stirred by Tariq Ali’s support for me in Hornsey and Wood Green to oust ‘warmonger Roche’. Ken used to be anti-war but now he’s a Labour man. Not so much a Mayor for London as a Mayor for Labour.

I run out of City Hall and dash back to the Muswell Hill roundabout for a briefing of a raft of Police Officers and Community Support officers who are part of the Safer Neighbourhood Teams.

1,000 officers across five boroughs are taking part in five one day bursts where a whole raft of measures are used to deter, detect and reduce crime. It was fantastic. I have never seen so many officers in Muswell Hill and passers by may have taken fright in case there was some sort of crime wave that officers had been brought in for! I look forward to seeing the analysis of this operation when it comes for monitoring to the Performance Committee of the MPA on which I sit.

Then I rush home, log on. I had forgotten what happens when a General Election gets called and I am the candidate – emails flood in as do phone calls. I check for emergency ones – and then dash out to deliver leaflets for a few hours.

Rush back to do a pre-record radio interview on tomorrow’s Mayor’s Question Time – more on transport – then rush out again for another few hours delivering leaflets. I do rely on the election campaign to get fit and lose half a stone.

And as ever – back for emails, letters and of course – this blog!

Bob Kiley's pay

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Rush outside after Transport Committee to do a TV snippet on Bob Kiley’s bonus and Oystercard.

Liberal Democrats finally got the figures and performance criteria of London’s traffic supremo – only thanks to our request under the Freedom of Information Act. Mind you, I think it should be a matter of public record – after all Londoners are all paying!

Mr Kiley gets a basic of £312,000 per annum. And over the last two years, in each year he got a bonus of £275,000 (96% of the full bonus) and this year is expected to get as much as £365,000 bonus.

The criteria for the pay are extremely vague, flabby and flawed. For a start – we have no idea what Mr Kiley is meant to do for his basic salary. I would have thought quite a lot for that amount. And yet in the performance criteria we find things he has to deliver like increased bus mileage and reduced congestion. ‘Scuse me – given the amount of extra buses we have all paid for over the last few years it would be a bit of a shock if bus mileage hadn’t increased. Ditto for reducing congestion – with the Congestion Charge it seems to me that was the main point.

Another strand of Bob’s bonus is helping to get borrowing from the government. This he has certainly delivered on and without Kiley I don’t think the government would have trusted Ken to borrow money. Budgeting is not his strong point…

However – Lib Dems will now pursue what we should have got for our money out of Mr Kiley’s basic salary and somewhat more specific targets for a bonus.

Call me old-fashioned – but I always thought a bonus was for doing extra well – not simply doing your job!

And of course the other biggy of the day was Oystercard packing up across London this morning. It wasn’t down for long – but it’s a good example of how things can go catastrophically wrong. (A corrupted disk Tim O’Toole had said in committee when I asked him to make a statement.)

Imagine if TfL had advanced the dream at this stage of everyone getting rid of their small change because you could buy bread and milk on Oystercard. Doris would have gone thirsty and hungry this morning.

After a Metropolitan Police Authority meeting, I rush to Transport for London to see Peter Hendy – supremo of all transport that runs on the surface of London.

This visit is about the Croydon Tram. There is a row between the guys running it and Transport for London. The people running the tram seem to believe that TfL may be trying to put them out of business by running competing bus routes. TfL think this is rubbish.

Peter (who is pretty robust) seems quite open to any suggestion from Croydon Tramlink about a way forward – but he certainly needs something from them on the table before any rescue plan could be brought forth.

And in the evening: with an election just around the corner – I do some telephoning!

Should the Northern Line be shut?

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The tube! I am chairing the London Assembly’s Transport Committee this morning and Tim O’Toole came in to give evidence – Managing Director of London Underground (LU) for Transport for London – followed by the hard men of the private companies – the Chief Execs of Tubelines and Metronet.

There was recently an explosive exchange of bad will in the press between LU and the private companies. The Northern Line is failing appallingly and the engineering overruns on a Monday morning are becoming legendary.

Tube users are getting a raw deal. Improvements, such as they are, are small and slow – and some areas are getting worse. These guys – the three of them between them – share the blame.

In the press Tim O’Toole has basically said that the private companies are not putting resources in fast enough and are thinking about their profits (we anti-PPP brigade could have said ‘told you so’!). There is a hint that he believes that the penalties that Metronet are incurring are not high enough and that it may be cheaper for them to overrun on a Monday morning causing misery for those trying to use the tube rather than finish on time.

With regard to the Northern Line – a new proposal from Tubelines made its public debut. It is clear to anyone who uses it twice a day (as I do – and yes I declare a great interest) that radical renewal and repair is called for. Apparently Tubelines have submitted a proposal to LU (Tim) which breaks the line into seven sections. Each section would be closed and totally redone, with the whole line taking about a year. The public will be consulted on this (or told about it) and replacement transport will be provided while each section is shut.

It’s only a proposal – but it’s the only game in town as far as I can see at the moment.

Anyway – there was a bit of a squabble about line closure per se – as this enables the private companies to do their engineering work more quickly and cheaper. Who reaps the financial benefit? LU (and I) think that we (the public) should get a refund on monies saved – but the private companies will undoubtedly find reasons not to pay it.

The other raging battle is over figures and discrepancies. In his media outburst, it was clear that Mr O’Toole believes (and the report to the TfL board says so) that only a tiny percentage of work promised on renewal or repair of stations and escalators etc has taken place. In committee both sides were shirty. I put it to both of them – and they equivocated about interpretation of figures to the point where they could both be right.

Just keep up the pressure – that’s all I can do. The PPP is a dreadful contract and Tim O’Toole is doing a good job considering the pup he’s been sold. I suspect his very public outburst on the performance of private companies came as a result of extreme frustration with a contract that puts him quite squarely between a rock and a hard place.

Busy media day

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Busy media day today. Splashed across Evening Standard front page is news of a ‘leaked’ document from the Assembly showing the appalling performance to date of the two private companies running the tube – and their manager, Transport for London.

I am really cross as it wasn’t a ‘leaked’ document – it was just the background briefing for members of the Assembly Transport Committee (which I chair) who will be questioning Tim O’Toole (MD of the tube for Transport for London) and the two Chief Execs of the private company on Thursday when they come before me in public session.

Cross – because the witnesses will now be forewarned. We always give them the questions or subjects so that they can prepare their background. However, the point of a public session in scrutiny is to put them on the spot.

Give a long interview to Metro on the failings of the PPP. How long have you got? Late with almost everything they are contracted to do – from over-running engineering to station upgrades.

Thursday’s session should be pretty interesting!

Also the Standard has taken my news release based on figures I have got hold of on how Capita (the Mayor’s favourite contractor administering the congestion charge) has had to pay GBP 4.5 million in fines – that’s GBP 7,400 per day. Even worse – the Mayor is going to extend their existing contract and almost certainly give them the contract for his westward extension to the congestion charge.

Well – given they are still missing 21% of their targets (improved from missing 35% previously) they are hardly going to kill themselves to improve when they know that seemingly whatever their performance they are going to be not only re-employed – but given new contracts.

It’s in the Standard and I do an LBC radio pre-record on the Capita release. Transport for London telephone – absolutely furious. However, the figures came in official Mayoral answers to written questions I had submitted.

Red faces I understand at TfL – they are now saying they gave the wrong figures in the Mayoral answer.

Capita have only had to pay GBP 3.7 million in fines not GBP 4.5 million.

I am sure that makes all the difference – not!

Then – to my surprise – BBC want to tape me talking about Ken’s climbdown over the Royal Ballet School. Happy to oblige. Ken has made a complete arse of himself by trying to use planning consent as a means to engineer his social policies – in this case the real sub-text being a view that a Royal Ballet School in a Royal Park is too posh and elitist.

My understanding is that this is rubbish as any budding Billy Elliott anywhere in the country aspires to come there – whatever the background.

Caught out, Ken is trying to assert that concessions by the school that they will make more strenuous efforts to attract diverse kids is the reason he has now been able to change his mind.

Last media call of the day is about the Parking Enforcement scrutiny I have instigated and been chairing at the London Assembly. We are in the process of writing up the evidence. It has become clear that the report will be ready in time for the April meeting – but if Blair calls the election – it might not be allowed to be published during that period.

There is some ruling somewhere that no one should gain any advantage from its publication. I would argue that it is the normal work of the Assembly and shouldn’t be stopped. I will ask for a legal ruling on this in due course.

Back to Hornsey & Wood Green to whip round to various houses collecting envelopes and then mountain of emails and casework to attend to.

Congestion charge increase?

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Fun time at City Hall. Mayor Livingstone was in front of me giving evidence to the Transport Committee (which I chair) yesterday on his desire to raise the Congestion Charge by over half to £8.

This is the same Mayor who four years ago when he came before me on the first of my investigations into the Congestion Charge told London that it was necessary to reduce traffic by 15% in the central zone – this was the critical level at which London would work – for business, for residents, for buses and all.

And nothing has changed. The charge works fantastically well – and there is no sign of a creep back or rise in traffic in the central zone.

Now, his main argument for an increase in the charge was that he wanted to drive traffic down further – by between 17% and 21% and that an £8 charge would do it. This was blown out of the water today as buried in the Transport for London Board papers was the fact that traffic in the central charging zone is already at a 21% reduction.

So why increase the charge?

Ken’s arguments jiggle about. It’s either about reducing traffic further for business OR it’s about quality of life and reducing pollution OR it’s about reassuring credit agencies that he is macho enough to raise money when needed for his borrowing OR it is to stop traffic creep back and so on…

It looks to me more like a simple cash grab.

Oyster cards

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Walk into office to be greeted by howls of laughter from my press officer and office manager. Marina Hyde (Guardian Diary – which one tries to avoid coverage in) has been sent my Christmas Eve newspaper column.

It was just a bit of fun – a festive fairytale with a bit of political mischief (as the Ham & High billed it). It followed on from my last year’s Christmas Fairy tale.

Anyway – Ms Hyde appeared concerned about my mental well-being and asked for reassurance which I gave later in the day along with the Doctor’s suggested remedy of becoming a Member of Parliament to ensure no relapses.

Pop in to Budget Committee for the part on the transport budget. I decide at the end (when non-members of the committee can raise issues) to have a go over the Oyster card mess that has erupted over the holiday period, at the introduction of new fares. We need to get this sorted as Oyster is a great idea in which public confidence is being shaken by the number of cock-ups by Transport for London.

I note with some irony that the vast majority of cock-ups mean that TfL gets money it is not entitled to out of our pockets.

Humps and tubes

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Assemble in the chamber for the three-minute silence. Brief speech by Ken followed by the silence. Many members and staff of the Assembly gathered. It feels appropriate to mark such an event with some formality.

Then, telephone interview with Transcalm.They are undertaking a marketing exercise to see how their ‘magic’ hump can best become a nice little earner. I inform the interviewer of my view that Dunlop were short-sighted (I may have used the term stupid) to have failed to take up the opportunities of a trial in Haringey.

Basically this road hump lies flat if you go over at the prescribed speed but remains a hump if you are speeding (as you pass over it too fast for it to deflate). I love the idea of rewarding good driving and punishing bad.

To date – the ‘magic’ hump has been trialled thus: two humps in a slip road in Puddle Dock. I suggest that they run it on a residential road in Haringey and/or a bus lane. When I set up a meeting to facilitate this in Haringey – the price they wanted to charge was still 50% of the normal price. Now these babies are not cheap – particularly in the short term – and the company who will make a mint if they take off should be willing to give a better deal than that to councils or authorities willing to give it a trial.

Then on to looking at Transport for London’s overspend on their budget (for budget committee tomorrow). They are £70 million over – despite raised fares – and have lots of problems with Oyster card bugs. So if they are going to bug London’s travellers, I am going to bug them about their bugs.

My other bugbear (excuse the pun) today is that London Underground have missed 4 out of 6 of their reliability targets. I got the answer to a Mayoral question and it’s a sadly familiar pattern: targets missed, performance down. It just adds insult to injury when the tube fares are the highest in the world, have just been raised and this coincides with big cheese Bob Kiley’s £51,000 rise and the tubeworkers’ 5.2%.

Guess who isn’t invited to the table – me and you. We pay more and get less. Bet Ken wouldn’t use that as his manifesto message.

Carol concert

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Plenary session of the London Assembly where we grill those stalwarts and London worthies responsible for our well-being in the aftermath of a catastrophic event in London.

London Resilience – the grouping tasked with our safety – is multi-headed and even after the session I am not totally convinced that we know who will lead in the event of an incident.

They say they are in control. They say anything that is not yet in place is on the way to being in place. We (LibDems) suggest that they produce a detailed instruction booklet as they have in New York. The New York one is great. It really makes you feel that you can prepare to the best of your ability and know what you need in your head, in your home and in your area. We should do the same. Happily, for once, the Assembly agrees and we pass a motion to produce one for London.

Latter off to St Martin’s in the Fields for Transport for London’s charity carol service for the transport world. An hour and a half of doing something I wanted to do. I normally don’t manage to get to any of the carol services I am invited to at this time of year due to pressure of work and my kids expecting Christmas on the 25th – no possibility of moving that deadline! But this year I am determined to get to one – and I do. It was not a wonder of the world, but it was nice to stop and have that experience in the run up to Christmas.

Fare dodging

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A day of interviewing applicants who have been shortlisted to become members of the London Transport Users Committee (LTUC) – who are accountable to the GLA. The quality of candidates is very high this time – and I am hopeful that when we make our decisions we will achieve a very capable body to represent London’s Transport Users.

Later in the day Peter Hendy (Director of Surface Transport at Transport for London) came with entourage to see me in my office to brief me fully on what TfL are doing about fare dodgers.

They had been a bit put out by my recent exposure of just how many folk are nipping on our buses free of charge and seemingly, with just 1 in 700 being caught, pretty much total impunity.

Post briefing, I have some confidence that TfL are making strenuous efforts to deter the dishonest from taking free rides and that they do actually pursue to prosecution those who evade fares – particularly when persistent offenders.

I am reassured that the health and safety issues raised with me by a serving revenue protection inspector are being properly dealt with – and actually – when I think about it, there is no-one more keenly aware of the dangers faced by bus drivers and inspectors than Peter Hendy – who was practically born and raised on a bus!

I still think they have a job on their hands with the bendy buses and I will continue to monitor their efforts, because I get very cross when Ken breaks his pledges and puts up fares above inflation and hits the honest citizen when apparently doing relatively little about the dishonest fare dodger.

TfL say they are willing to look at the Lib Dem suggestion that the penalty be raised to GBP20 and then doubled and doubled if not paid. So we will see what the dodging rate is in a year’s time … Meanwhile I will move my current attention to fare dodging to the tubes!

Then up to London’s Living room for drinks with the Chair of the Assembly (Brian – I like regalia – Coleman) and Assembly Members and guests. It is such a beautiful venue – situated on top of City Hall with an almost 360 degrees view of London. Tower Bridge, which stands next to our building, the Tower of London, the Glass Gherkin and the lights of London are just a fabulous setting for any function.

Power from sugar

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Mayor’s Question Time. I lead the charge today on fare evasion in London. 150 million fares have been dodged since Ken took office. Millions of pounds lost – with revenue inspectors only catching 1 in around 800 dodgers and us honest citizens having our fares banged up above inflation to help the Mayor out of his dodgy financial situation.

As ever, Ken gets annoyed about my inquisition and says you have to expect to lose some money. Only gets really cross when I point out to him that his new bendy buses are getting known as the ‘free bus’ because it is so easy to jump on and off without paying.

At this point came an unexpected endorsement from the Mayor – who said: “Hopefully you are going to Parliament so I will not have to put up with your questions much longer.”

He loves me really…

Later in the day, had an interesting meeting with British Sugar. I know. When I saw it in my diary I thought why am I having a meeting about sugar. But did you know – you can turn it into a bio-fuel? Perhaps the way forward for energy renewables?

Clearly hitting a brick wall of ‘can’t do’ at Transport for London who though interested appear immobilised on the issue, British Sugar have turned to us to help. I am intrigued as to what the obstacles really are as it seemed a pretty good thing for the Mayor to be seen to be getting involved in. Oh well – a bit of publicity and pressure and who knows?

Then a rush round meetings in the event. First, Hornsey Housing Forum as I want to add my two penny’s worth on the future of council housing in Haringey. The recommendation to Haringey Council’s Executive will be to transfer the housing to an ALMO (Arms Length Management Organisation). Of course it will be sold in the ballot that this is the only option viable if Haringey wants the money the government is offering. (It’s really a form of blackmail as the government will only hand over the money if people chose one of its preferred options for the future of council housing). But the small print will say – yes – but you have to gain two star status for the housing service to be eligible for the dosh anyway. There’s always a sting!

Then a Muswell Hill and Fortis Green Residents’ Association meeting. Diane Dodd – who heads the volunteer operation for Muswell Hill Police Station – is there to update everyone on how the newly reopened front counter is doing and how she is working to extend the hours.