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

[email protected] · June 14th 15, 03:33 PM posted to uk.transport.london

In article

rg, (Recliner) wrote:

wrote:
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.

I've never taken Wolmar seriously as a mayoral candidate. I'm pretty sure
both major parties will put up popular London MPs.

MPs anyway.

I'm amazed Wolmar even managed to creep on to the short list. This
campaign to become a candidate must have been hard work for him, and he'll
be very out of pocket, both because of the cost of the campaign
(presumably not funded by any generous donors) and the absent sales of the
next railway history book he won't have written this year.

Labour allowed each constituency party to nominate two people. That
certainly helped a number of candidates.

--
Colin Rosenstiel