Transport for London is said to be facing a £400m hole in its budget, as disgruntled passengers increasingly desert Buses and Tubes for an illegal, cheap minicab service, using drivers with virtually no criminal record checks, back by the government. Is TfL a victim of its own corruption?
We've seen Uber driver terrorist attacks, sexual assaults including rapes up 50% last year, road traffic accidents at an alarming level, passenger account details hacked, bogus journeys charged to unsuspecting account holders...but it is supported by the Tories, TfL and the Mayor's office...and of course, it's cheap (sometimes)!
But what price do you put on your personal safety, and that of you family and friends?
TfL tube fares income alone is projected to fall £239m below expectations this financial year, with commercial income - from advertising, retail and property - £160m down, according to confidential documents leaked to the media.
London's overstaffed, congestion causing bus service has been hit hardest and now the Mayor says he will oversee a more compact bus service as increasingly more passengers chose to use an unsafe, illegal instant hail smart phone app, rather than wait for buses stuck in the Khanage of road works and reduced road space caused by cycle lanes.
The Tube is hit with 20m fewer journeys being made between September and December, bucking the trend of increased travel in the run-up to Christmas. So far this year, Tube passenger numbers are almost four per cent, or 38 million journeys, below target.
Concerns have been mounting that rush-hour Bus service delays and cancellations on the Tube and overground train network have caused tempers to fray, prompting TfL to ask British Transport Police to reinstate "local policing teams".
"There has been a rise in aggression between passengers, pushing and shoving, verbal disputes and threatening behaviour at the busy commuter times when services are at peak capacity," a report to today's (Tuesday's) TfL board said.
The situation seems to be out of control as passengers seem even more willing to risk the dangers of sexual predators and untrained minicab drivers 13,000 without the proper criminal background checks, because of the cheapness due to predator pricing.
Interesting to hear from Mayor Khan on BBC London news last night, when talking about the poor performance of the Bus service, he said 'when Oxford street is pedestrianised'....but to be fair, they was always going to do it, no matter what the public consultation wanted.
Goes to show that these TfL consultations ain't worth the ePaper they are written on!
They are about as important as online petitions.
TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT : Other news.
It appears London has already breached its yearly European pollution limit. But this isn't because pollution is unbelievably bad, it's because the level is set so low.
Experts say that even if they removed all the traffic from central London, we would still breach the European limits well before December, with just the ambient fumes from home central heating, industrial discharge, air conditioning, and pollution blown across the channel.
The more they try to deal with a problem, the murkier it all gets.
Remember when Boris removed the "older, dirty Taxis", replacing them with new models which gave out higher levels of NO2 and Nox.
Defra report in 2013 showed ALL emissions strategies in London failed and Mayor Boris' Age limit on Taxis was improper, and based on lies.
Back in 2012, we saw an investigation by a legal team from the RMT Union, who reported back that although the Mayor's age limit itself could be deemed as improper and likely to be illegal.
The fact that the age limit was offered to the Mayor on behalf of the trade by an unelected drivers group, some of whom have never driven a Taxi as a living, any challenge would be unlikely to be successful.
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