Tuesday 14 July 2015


And we’re off again, ASLEF have set another strike date giving management three weeks to start taking us seriously and start negotiating about how Night Tube will be implemented rather than keep offering us money to accept their current proposals.  The first meeting at ACAS will be today and I’ll be keeping a close eye on Our Man Finn’s twitter feed hoping for good news.  Oh for those of you who don’t get the pop culture reference think 1966 James Bond parody starring James Coburn.

Finn made a very good point in the Observer on Sunday, last November when YouGov conducted a survey on what Londoners wanted from the Tube cheaper fares came on top with 49% while longer opening hours lagged behind on 16% and more frequent services only got 9%.  Indeed a spot of Googling reveals that cheaper fares have been at the top of the list for a long time and transport was the key issue for Londoners until April last year when housing took the lead.

This year Boris had the option of keeping fares down or cutting his share of council tax and as with every other year he chose to reduce council tax, reducing our bills by an average of £40 per household per year.  This is perfectly understandable, like all good Tories Boris is happier reducing tax and putting the cost of services onto the users but he is inconsistent.  Night Tube will lose £19.6m in the first year and isn’t expected to break even until the 2030s so it seems that in this case Boris is happy for the cost to be borne by the tax payer rather than those that will benefit.

This isn’t the only example of Boris’s inconsistency, he’s happy to throw £30m of taxpayers money on Joanna Lumley’s Garden Bridge and pay the £3.5m annual running costs out of TfL’s budget despite promising he wouldn’t.  He spent £65m of taxpayers money on the cable car having promised that it would be completely funded by private investment and he’s signed us up to paying for the Borisbus until they fall apart because Arriva and the other bus companies refused to take them on themselves.

When it comes to things that would be useful and popular - like keeping fares low - Boris is a true neo-liberal but when it’s something dramatic that he will  be able to point to in future years as a legacy of his two terms as Mayor of London - such as Night Tube or the Boris Bus – he seems perfectly happy to let the taxpayer carry the burden.  Every time Boris has been questioned about the strike he’s insisted that it’s politically motivated but perhaps rather than the strike it is Night Tube itself that’s political.

6 comments:

  1. Doubting Terrapin15 July 2015 at 13:22

    Not only those wastes - Johnson's second-most expensive whim, after the awful 'New Bus for London' was to force nearly-new articulated buses off the road. All those buses (except Arriva who bought theirs) were on five year leases, extendable for two years by each batch to meet up to seven year route tender periods. TfL had to pay the bus operators not only the penalty clause costs in premature return off lease but also subsidise the replacement conventional buses - in route 38's case some 58 artics were replaced by 72 conventional deckers, which of course means more drivers, which TfL also had to pay for. No idea what if any compensation Arriva had. Also, TfL had funded a LOT of highway improvements to allow the artics to run.

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    1. The Bendy Bus should never have been allowed into London in the first place. It's bad enough when a pedestrian crossing or a road junction gets blocked by a standard length bus, let alone one of those monstrosities. It might have seemed like a waste of money getting rid of them early, but I'm glad to see the back of them at any cost.

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  2. Excellent stats and facts reporting, Shrugged. Fox and Sky could learn a bit about ethical reporting from you. Someone mentioned in one of the other threads, it isn't just Drivers on strike. I wish this was emphasised more by The Unions. Also that when we are not striking, we are not supposed to be doing any overtime. Could you please mention that for all your readers. Especially for those unionised Supervisors and Managers that have been doing overtime. Financial sacrifices have been made by depot staff that have resulted in outstabling of trains and trains not ready for service, It is the very least that a Supervisor or Manager do their rostered hours. And not the extra to bank their hours for days off. That's what "ACTION SHORT OF A STRIKE" meant on the ballot. That is what the majority decision carried. Please, Shrugged can you make a point of outlining this. This "work to rule" is far more effective than strikes and will see this dispute reach an end far more quickly. Thanks, Shrugged.

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    1. Here. Here. Especially for all those sados that grudgingly came out and have been bemoaning that action ever since. They are now trying to recoup their losses through overtime. You (Managers and Controllers mostly) give the rest of us true and decent union members a bad name. Action short of strike means no overtime, no training, no banking, work to rule etc. NO FAVOURS to Management what so ever. At all. Ever. Period.

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  3. TRT
    Utter cobblers
    I have just used bendies in rural Germany, going round some incredibly narrow & tight-cornered village streets.
    Pure spite press campaign, based on no evidence.
    Can we have the bendies back, please?

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  4. I didn't say they couldn't make the turn. I said they block the way for pedestrians and cars on Lonfon's incredibly congested streets.

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