On 08/06/2018 22:13, Someone Somewhere wrote:

In terms of raising the cost of transport for everyone in London,
presumably you refer to the demographic of Londoners who use coaches on
a regular basis?

No, I refer to the demographic that buys stuff in shops, uses buses or
uses coaches, such as the many commuter services. If you buy it in a
shop, it has been delivered by a lorry which will soon need to comply
with Euro 6 rules or pay the penalty charge. Look at the number of
pre-2014 lorries on the road next time you are out and about to see the
scale of the problem.

TfL are replacing buses at a rate that has greatly reduced the residual
value of a bus in the second hand market all over Britain, which is good
news for, say, people in Birmingham, but has increased the net cost of
buying a bus to use in London.

Given that demographic is pretty small, what value do most pollution
producing coaches bring to most Londoners?* The worst examples mirroring
railway routes for the most cost-sensitive commuter which then clog up
the roads and start rat-running in breach of their LSP conditions.

One of the reasons there are so many commuter services duplicating rail
routes is that the service on rail is so bad and expensive. Cure those
problems, and they will nostly disappear.

One reason for the roads being clogged is Boris's Cycle Superhighways,
and since they were completed, average traffic speeds in central London
have reduced from 11mph to 5.5mph for passenger carrying vehicles
permitted to use bus lanes.
--
Tciao for Now!

John.