On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:04:31 +0000, Tom Barry
wrote:

To be fair, Mr. Khan got an immediate query from myself saying 'what,
even Heathrow' to which I have, as yet, not had a reply. Minor issue,
really, but (like the Thames Clipper lack of true PAYG integration)
nothing must detract from the great politicians and their PR opportunity.

To be fair, the Thames Clippers are a very expensive operation (given
the large number of crew required) and as such it doesn't surprise me
that they don't come under the cap.

If they were to be "true Travelcard" services, vast amounts of money
would need to be spent on increasing capacity, which wouldn't really
work as a straight frequency increase as it's already the case that
the existing piers are "full", with 2 or 3 boats often meeting in the
same place and having to shuffle around. So realistically, short of
replacing them with much bigger boats[1] and a load more subsidy at a
time cost-cutting is on the agenda, full integration won't and
probably shouldn't happen.

[1] Because of the need for the right number of liferafts etc, you
can't just crush-load them.

Neil

--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the at to reply.