Tuesday, February 17, 2004

London's Congestion Charge - one year on

Happy Birthday C-charge (PDF file) - one year-old today. Transport for London (i.e. "Sir" Ken Livingstone) trumpets that the C-Charge has been a success.

- Traffic delays inside the charging zone remain 30 percent lower than before charging was introduced.
- Buses continue to experience significant gains in reliability in and around the charging zone
- Surveys of over 700 businesses inside and immediately outside the charging zone have shown that wider economic and other factors were reported most frequently as influences on recent business performance
- Congestion charging contributes £50 million of net transport benefits to London’s economy per year, mainly through quicker and more reliable journeys for road and bus users.

Sayeth, "Lord Kenneth of Neasden":

"Congestion charging was a radical solution to a long standing problem. Before the introduction of the charge, London’s roads were clogged with slow-moving traffic and congestion was costing business £2m a week.

"The scheme has made a real difference in getting London moving again. Fewer vehicles in the zone coupled with improved bus services and faster, more reliable, vehicle journeys, make London a far better place to work, live and visit. Despite the dire predictions before the launch of the scheme, congestion charging has proved a success and that is why nearly three quarters of Londoners now support the scheme - because it works."

Now Ken wants to double the C-Charge area to include Kensington & Chelsea.

posted by pete at 5:16 PM

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Parp, Parp!

"Now it's the wrong sort of warning hooter plaguing London's new £1million-a-carriage commuter trains.

"The noise from the hooter is being blasted out "sideways" - rather than in front of the train - and straight into lineside homes.

"Local councils have threatened noise abatement orders and even an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights."

posted by pete at 1:44 PM

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

THE GREAT FIDDLE YARD IN THE SKY*

The Evening Standard reports:

"Thousands of London mainline rail commuters are today condemned to travelling on overcrowded and "grubby" 40-year-old slam door trains because of a "catalogue of blunders" by industry chiefs. "

As opposed to the grubby 20 year old stock I ride on every day.

"Amazingly, [great tabloid word that] the train manufacturers were not given sufficient information about the network - making it difficult to build stock "compatible" with routes."

Rail privatisation strikes again.

"As a result of power supply problems, slam door trains will not all be withdrawn in December as intended - 300 will continue until June 2005."

And this, 15 years after the Clapham rail disaster, the inquiry of which recommended the earliest removal of the said slam door stock.

Today's commuter nightmare: dead body on the line.

A good day to take off and do jobs around the house.

* - "Fiddle yard" = the hands of a model railway enthusiast.

posted by pete at 9:30 PM