London Banter - View Single Post - Mayor's Boris Island plan killed off TfL takeover of SoutheasternMetro services

[email protected] · June 14th 15, 01:04 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

On Sun, 14 Jun 2015 12:28:12 +0100, Recliner
wrote:

On Sun, 14 Jun 2015 11:40:59 +0100, Paul Corfield
wrote:

On Sun, 14 Jun 2015 10:23:54 +0000 (UTC), Recliner
wrote:

Paul Corfield wrote:
On Sun, 14 Jun 2015 08:56:57 +0000 (UTC), Recliner
wrote:

But we have the Boris Bus, Boris Bike, and would-be
Boris Island, but no Ken Fare, Ken Train, Ken Card, Ken Tram, etc.

All that proves is that Boris is a bigger egomaniac than Ken was and
he was no shrinking violet. I actually prefer substance to "style"
and Ken delivered far more of value and substance. The test of that
is that Boris has barely reversed any of Ken's major policy
initiatives - especially on transport.

All I can give Boris credit for is managing to maintain funding for
Crossrail and not cancelling it, South London Line extension to the
Overground, sustaining investment in Overground and Tramlink capacity
and forcing TfL into releasing Bus Countdown information.

There's very little else of merit - the bus network development has
lagged behind growth and economic development, the tube is under
severe strain and several investments are wrong or have gone wrong,
there has been a planning blight of around 6 years which has destoyed
momentum in new scheme delivery which will probably result in a gap
of 10-12 years in anything substantive happening. Traffic congestion
is pretty appalling as is pollution and the Mayor has nothing
meaningful to say on this because he essentially believes people can
drive where and when they want. Whoever the next Mayor is has some
real nasty problems to deal with.

It looks like Boris has chosen his successor: fellow old-Etonian Zac,
while Boris tries to succeed fellow old-Etonian Dave.

Not his choice though is it? It's a party choice and it'll be
interesting to see who wins through. Poor old Andew Boff must be
seething - is this his third or fourth go at trying to be the
candidate?

Boris's role was in persuading Zac to stand. If his Richmond
constituents back his decision, I think he'd be very likely to win the
Tory candidacy, and would then be their best prospect to win the
election itself.

Didn't know he'd done any persuading. I agree Goldsmith is likely to
win provided he has some sort of coherent policy position. I don't
trust Greenhalgh at all. TfL would be laid waste in order to fund his
proposed fare cuts plus he doesn't understand the need to compenstate
the TOCs (outside of TfL control) for revenue losses.

I agree Mr Goldsmith, if selected, will be a very tough candidate to
beat. I also feel Labour are in grave danger of wrecking their
prospects.

I suspect Zac would easily beat Dame Tessa or Sadiq Khan. But perhaps
Labour will choose dark horse charismatic 'transport expert' Christian
Wolmar who has, to my surprise (just) made it on to the shortlist.

I can't see the "labour machine" allowing Wolmar to win. I also don't
think he's a particularly good candidate. I read his recent Transport
document - no mention of buses despite them being the busiest
vehicular mode of public transport in London. That's just ridiculous
and shows his preoccupation with walking and cycling.

As things stand today, and I accept it's very early days, I am not
impressed by any candidate from any party.

The real yardstick for impression is Boris at this stage 8 years ago and Ken
even longer ago. I agree with you on Wolmar. I just don't think he could run
the ship. On policing he'd be even more out of his depth than Boris.

--
Colin Rosenstiel