Friday 10 February 2012

I’ll be back next week but a little piece of travel related news caught my eye.

In a recent meeting at City Hall GLA member for South West Tony Arbour (C) stated that:-

“It is a fact, is it not, that relatively few Londoners actually use London transport in any way. Most people don't use London transport with any sense of regularity and isn’t it a principle of Conservatism and taxation that those people who pay for a service and receive a service are the ones who should pay for it.

Isn’t the great thing about a reduction and a freezing of the precept is that it goes to everyone rather than those who receive a specific service.”

He was heartily supported by another great friend of private motorists Brian Coleman, Barnet and Camden (C), but Boris said he'd need to look at the figures. When he does he’ll discover that every day there are around 8.4 million trips on Tube, rail, DLR, bus, tram and taxis and that over the last ten years the only forms of transport to see a decline are cars and motorbikes.

It seems to me that for a lot of people this year’s Mayoral Election will be a simple choice between Boris’s reduction of the Mayor’s share of council tax, saving every London household an average of £3.10 a year and Ken’s fares cut which he estimates will reduce annual ticket costs by around £250.

If the voters choose Ken in May then I would imagine Mr. Arbour will conclude that all those people who don’t use London Transport were unable to vote as their polling stations were too far away or they couldn't find anywhere to park.

2 comments:

  1. I see Ken's started his campaign with a guarantee to build crossrail 2 & 3, or was I imagining it?

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  2. He did add that neither of those would be started until after Crossrail 1 was finsished and that's not due until around 2018. By then we will have had another Mayoral election and Ken could have retired.

    At least Ken didn't say that it won't cost the taxpayer a penny as Boris did when announcing the Silvertown tunnel. He said the same thing about the cable car and it's costing us £60m.

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