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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2015 16:21:18 GMT
East Thames Buses revival should this chap get in....? Who does he get this info from ? Clearly he thinks Metroline and Tower Tranisit are British, they aren't on his hit list !
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Post by vjaska on Sept 7, 2015 18:10:58 GMT
East Thames Buses revival should this chap get in....? Who does he get this info from ? Clearly he thinks Metroline and Tower Tranisit are British, they aren't on his hit list ! I don't see what good will come attacking the likes of Arriva and co. because they are foreign owned - quite ironic given his family roots!
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Post by T.R. on Sept 7, 2015 18:25:51 GMT
And where would they run from? It's not like garage space is plentiful.
Sounds like the similar arguments about the railways (Abellio & Arriva being common 'foreign' targets)
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Post by Deleted on Sept 7, 2015 18:54:21 GMT
And where would they run from? It's not like garage space is plentiful. Sounds like the similar arguments about the railways (Abellio & Arriva being common 'foreign' targets) Sounds like he is listening to the same few who bang their twitter keyboards suggesting foreign owned firms kill and maim more Londoners than UK based firms. Ludicrous.
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Post by snoggle on Sept 7, 2015 20:01:18 GMT
Don't worry - his dad was a bus driver so he knows everyfink about buses darnt' cha know it!! It is this sort of moronic nonsense that makes my blood boil. If he spent a bit of effort and just asked TfL they could explain how tendering works and that there is a need for fair competition. He'd also realise that CT Plus is a form of community enterprise and runs buses in London so there are no restrictions in place. You could not have an "internal" bus company competing against private businesses - East Thames was an operator of last resort which is a different thing altogether. It deals with the consequences of market failure. If nothing else there would be issues around "State Aid" to deal with. I can certainly see Stagecoach and Metroline not being remotely happy about this sort of "competition" being in prospect. Can you imagine the likely challenges to every tender award to a TfL owned bus company? I am not 100% certain about the nature of TfL's bus contracts and their procurement value but I suspect they are caught by the standstill period that applies to contract awards. That could come into play if bidders suspected the procurement process hadn't been run fairly. I'm afraid Mr Kahn comes across as a bit of a "wide boy" and a "chancer" - I just don't trust him to act sensibly and coherently as Mayor. I fear he has too many favourite causes that would detract from his ability to do the job of Mayor properly.
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Post by ohdear on Sept 7, 2015 20:06:00 GMT
"I'm afraid Mr Kahn comes across as a bit of a "wide boy" and a "chancer" - I just don't trust him to act sensibly and coherently as Mayor. I fear he has too many favourite causes that would detract from his ability to do the job of Mayor properly."
Whoops - I was sure you were talking about Boris
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Post by snoggle on Sept 7, 2015 20:31:11 GMT
"I'm afraid Mr Kahn comes across as a bit of a "wide boy" and a "chancer" - I just don't trust him to act sensibly and coherently as Mayor. I fear he has too many favourite causes that would detract from his ability to do the job of Mayor properly." Whoops - I was sure you were talking about Boris Boris has half a foot out of the door of City Hall so there's not much he can do now apart from put the fares up in January. You could probably direct my comments at Ken Livingstone if you felt like it - he certainly had his causes but given his past tenure at the GLC and as a MP it's fair to say people knew he had those. I do feel Ken was rather more pragmatic as Mayor despite his "causes" and the fact he'd worked extensively in London government before meant he knew how stuff worked / had to work. Boris didn't have that background. In terms of the various candidates vying to represent their respective parties then some do have strong government / local authority experience and others do not. I'm getting a horrible sense that Zac Goldsmith is shaping up to be a lightweight version of Boris with little actual substance to what he wants to do other than carry on Boris's policies. In transport terms that's the last thing we need. Anyway a pox on *all* their houses as I haven't heard a decent detailed practical policy from any of them. They're all off in "la la land" promising the earth with no idea how to deliver it. It's going to be a very strange Mayoral term because the Mayor will be new as will a lot of the Assembly as several members are now MPs and not seeking re-election and others are retiring / leaving. There will be a lot of learning needed and a lot of experience going out the door regardless of whether people are re-elected. Whether or not you like Val Shawcross's politics her knowledge on transport matters is going to be sorely missed - only female politician I've come across who admits to being a train geek. She didn't take any crap from people and had a good idea when people were being "evasive".
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Post by vjaska on Sept 7, 2015 22:20:03 GMT
"I'm afraid Mr Kahn comes across as a bit of a "wide boy" and a "chancer" - I just don't trust him to act sensibly and coherently as Mayor. I fear he has too many favourite causes that would detract from his ability to do the job of Mayor properly." Whoops - I was sure you were talking about Boris Boris has half a foot out of the door of City Hall so there's not much he can do now apart from put the fares up in January. You could probably direct my comments at Ken Livingstone if you felt like it - he certainly had his causes but given his past tenure at the GLC and as a MP it's fair to say people knew he had those. I do feel Ken was rather more pragmatic as Mayor despite his "causes" and the fact he'd worked extensively in London government before meant he knew how stuff worked / had to work. Boris didn't have that background. In terms of the various candidates vying to represent their respective parties then some do have strong government / local authority experience and others do not. I'm getting a horrible sense that Zac Goldsmith is shaping up to be a lightweight version of Boris with little actual substance to what he wants to do other than carry on Boris's policies. In transport terms that's the last thing we need. Anyway a pox on *all* their houses as I haven't heard a decent detailed practical policy from any of them. They're all off in "la la land" promising the earth with no idea how to deliver it. It's going to be a very strange Mayoral term because the Mayor will be new as will a lot of the Assembly as several members are now MPs and not seeking re-election and others are retiring / leaving. There will be a lot of learning needed and a lot of experience going out the door regardless of whether people are re-elected. Whether or not you like Val Shawcross's politics her knowledge on transport matters is going to be sorely missed - only female politician I've come across who admits to being a train geek. She didn't take any crap from people and had a good idea when people were being "evasive". So far, all the Labour hopefuls seem very poor, especially the ones proposing to cut fares. Did they not see what happened when Ken proposed the same? The public did not bite last time and I highly doubt people will this time, even with the current financial climate. People prefer the truth rather than popular but unworkable policies.
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Post by snoggle on Sept 7, 2015 23:14:15 GMT
So far, all the Labour hopefuls seem very poor, especially the ones proposing to cut fares. Did they not see what happened when Ken proposed the same? The public did not bite last time and I highly doubt people will this time, even with the current financial climate. People prefer the truth rather than popular but unworkable policies. Well it is worth pointing out that Lib Dem Caroline Pidgeon favours some form of freeze plus 1 hour bus tickets and "workman's fares" while Stephen Greenhalgh wants to cut fares every year by 3%. Ms Pidgeon's one hour bus ticket could cost up to £70m a year and you lose roundly £100m for every 1% over RPI you don't increase by. No idea what workman fares would cost as I've never seen any detail. I am convinced that Greenhalgh would cut TfL to ribbons in order to fund that scale of fares cut and therein lies his problem. You can't dismantle an organisation to remove cost when a lot of what happens relies on people to make it work. People might have a cheaper fare but if they can't get to work because there are no more buses - he proposes to cap the bus fleet size and no expansion allowed - and the tube, overground and DLR become unreliable then what the hell was the point? When there is a firm candidate for each party I would like them to be interviewed by Sir Peter Hendy about their policies for TfL. He no longer works for TfL but knows its workings, finances and the transport industry inside out. His "robust" form of challenge would give them all a d*mn good run for their money and I think the public deserve that sort of scrutiny. I think a fares freeze / fares cut is completely untenable in the current funding situation. If government had not slashed revenue grant by such a huge amount and TfL had not cocked up SSR resignalling we might be in a more benevolent budget position that would give some scope for modest and targeted fares initiatives. There are some simple things like restoring the Z26 ODTC / Daily Cap and the concept of an off peak season ticket that could encourage more travel and would be fairer to those who are financially stretched. The system can clearly cope with these sorts of things. There would be a budget impact, likely a negative one, but probably small scale compared to other proposals from the politicians. I don't like the idea of fares going up all the time but you need a different funding position with government and we aren't going to get such a change until 2020 and possibly 2025. By the latter date all of TfL's services will be subsidy free and the bus fare will be £2.60 or higher (allowing for inflation etc).
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Post by Deleted on Sept 8, 2015 11:02:41 GMT
East Thames Buses revival should this chap get in....? Who does he get this info from ? Clearly he thinks Metroline and Tower Tranisit are British, they aren't on his hit list ! I don't see what good will come attacking the likes of Arriva and co. because they are foreign owned - quite ironic given his family roots! I don't think it's a good thing that profits from running buses in London go to the government of other European countries, but then I don't see how that's any worse than it ending up in the back pocket of the owners of private companies like Go-Ahead. Seems odd to selectively attack those companies while ignoring the wider point about privatisation.
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Post by Eastlondoner62 on Sept 11, 2015 16:02:23 GMT
Sadiq Kahn has won the Labour mayoral campaign
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Post by John tuthill on Sept 11, 2015 17:19:24 GMT
Sadiq Kahn has won the Labour mayoral campaign So if he gets elected(!!) the Boris bikes now become Khan carts?
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Post by Nathan on Sept 11, 2015 17:51:12 GMT
Sadiq Kahn has won the Labour mayoral campaign Fun fact: He's the father of a bus driver who used to drive the Route 44.
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Post by snoggle on Sept 11, 2015 19:20:05 GMT
Sadiq Kahn has won the Labour mayoral campaign Fun fact: He's the father of a bus driver who used to drive the Route 44. Not quite - *his* father drove the 44 bus.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 12, 2015 6:21:25 GMT
I've just read his website. Another scheme he wants in place is the same basic pay across all bus operators. This will be achieved by TFL putting this into the contracts when renewed gradually once he (if he ) becomes mayor.
If I was the Chief Exec of Ratp Dev I would be starting to make some contingency plans to get out of the London bus market, because it is clear that Khan, backed by Unite Union, will be making it quite a hostile place to run buses.
I'm all for decent pay , but I think what he actually has in mind is some sort of re-nationalisation , albeit in a by the back door kind of way. That's not necessarily the answer to Londons bus problems. Hopefully some people at TfL can advise him accordingly.
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