Was interested to see a new taxi stand put up outside my office in Queen
Victoria Street, using a special new blue roundel with TAXI in the middle
where UNDERGROUND normally goes.

Some guy was going around changing a sticker on each one in the City of
London, because apparently there was information on them that didn't apply
to the City or something. He was scraping away at the sign trying to get
the last vestiges of the old sticker off. He explained it to me but I
didn't really follow.

Strange things... and interesting that this has made the taxi more part of
London Transport. The one on Queen Victoria Street is only a stand in the
evenings though, but this is not obvious... I can see many tourists
standing there waiting for a cab and not realising that it only applies in
the evening.

I couldn't find anything about them here
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/businessandpar...hire/1400.aspx

Tristán White wrote:
Was interested to see a new taxi stand put up outside my office in
Queen Victoria Street, using a special new blue roundel with TAXI in
the middle where UNDERGROUND normally goes.

Some guy was going around changing a sticker on each one in the City
of London, because apparently there was information on them that
didn't apply to the City or something. He was scraping away at the
sign trying to get the last vestiges of the old sticker off. He
explained it to me but I didn't really follow.

Strange things... and interesting that this has made the taxi more
part of London Transport.

It's not London Transport any more. It's Transport for London, and the
inclusion of taxis in its remit is one of the reasons why the name changed.
The roundel has existed in various forms corresponding with the TfL
functions for several years. See
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate...os/default.asp

--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

"Richard J." wrote in news:FZtYh.8161
:

https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate...os/default.asp

Funnily enough, the one I saw was none of these, it was blue (similar to
the RIVER one) and said just TAXI.

Tristán White wrote:

Was interested to see a new taxi stand put up outside my office in
Queen Victoria Street, using a special new blue roundel with TAXI in
the middle where UNDERGROUND normally goes.

The one on Queen Victoria Street is only a
stand in the evenings though, but this is not obvious... I can see
many tourists standing there waiting for a cab and not realising that
it only applies in the evening.

Hailed taxis can stop in most places, so the fact that it is only a rank for
a few hours is of relevance to taxi drivers, but is not of much relevance to
tourists or any other potential passengers.

Tristán White wrote:
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate...os/default.asp

Funnily enough, the one I saw was none of these, it was blue
(similar to the RIVER one) and said just TAXI.

It will have been the same colour as the taxi-private-hire one, not the
river one.

In article ,
(Richard J.) wrote:

Tristán White wrote:
Was interested to see a new taxi stand put up outside my office in
Queen Victoria Street, using a special new blue roundel with TAXI
in the middle where UNDERGROUND normally goes.

Some guy was going around changing a sticker on each one in the
City of London, because apparently there was information on them that
didn't apply to the City or something. He was scraping away at the
sign trying to get the last vestiges of the old sticker off. He
explained it to me but I didn't really follow.

Strange things... and interesting that this has made the taxi more
part of London Transport.

It's not London Transport any more. It's Transport for London, and
the inclusion of taxis in its remit is one of the reasons why the
name changed. The roundel has existed in various forms
corresponding with the TfL functions for several years. See
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate...os/default.asp

In fact, UIVMM, TfL came first. The PCO was given the the Mayor after he
took over TfL.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

Colin Rosenstiel wrote:
In article ,
(Richard J.) wrote:

Tristán White wrote:
Was interested to see a new taxi stand put up outside my office in
Queen Victoria Street, using a special new blue roundel with TAXI
in the middle where UNDERGROUND normally goes.

Some guy was going around changing a sticker on each one in the
City of London, because apparently there was information on them
that didn't apply to the City or something. He was scraping away at
the sign trying to get the last vestiges of the old sticker off. He
explained it to me but I didn't really follow.

Strange things... and interesting that this has made the taxi more
part of London Transport.

It's not London Transport any more. It's Transport for London, and
the inclusion of taxis in its remit is one of the reasons why the
name changed. The roundel has existed in various forms
corresponding with the TfL functions for several years. See
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate...os/default.asp

In fact, UIVMM, TfL came first. The PCO was given the the Mayor after
he took over TfL.

The GLA, the Mayor of London, TfL and the transfer of the PCO from the
police to TfL are all covered by the Greater London Authority Act 1999.
http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1999/19990029.htm. While TfL might have
been formally established before the first Mayoral election, it was all part
of the same process of establishing the new transport authority.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

"John Rowland" wrote in
:

Tristán White wrote:

Was interested to see a new taxi stand put up outside my office in
Queen Victoria Street, using a special new blue roundel with TAXI in
the middle where UNDERGROUND normally goes.

The one on Queen Victoria Street is only a
stand in the evenings though, but this is not obvious... I can see
many tourists standing there waiting for a cab and not realising that
it only applies in the evening.

Hailed taxis can stop in most places, so the fact that it is only a
rank for a few hours is of relevance to taxi drivers, but is not of
much relevance to tourists or any other potential passengers.


In that case, one has to wonder... WHY has this been done, not just to
great expense, but also every bit of pavement furniture damages the look
and feel of our great city.

All it will do is confuse tourists in the daytime.

Tristán White wrote:
"John Rowland" wrote in
:

Tristán White wrote:

The one on Queen Victoria Street is only a
stand in the evenings though, but this is not obvious... I can see
many tourists standing there waiting for a cab and not realising
that it only applies in the evening.

Hailed taxis can stop in most places, so the fact that it is only a
rank for a few hours is of relevance to taxi drivers, but is not of
much relevance to tourists or any other potential passengers.

In that case, one has to wonder... WHY has this been done, not just to
great expense, but also every bit of pavement furniture damages the
look and feel of our great city.

All it will do is confuse tourists in the daytime.

Actually, I got that wrong. Hailers queueing on a rank get priority over
hailers stood nearby - cabs should not pickup within sight of a rank if
there is someone hailing on a rank. Presumably there is a shortage of cabs
in the area during the evenings, so if you work nearby you should walk to
the rank because you are pretty much guaranteed a cab within a reasonable
time, whereas if you just stand at a random point (not near a rank) you can
wait for ages while seeing cabs all around being pinched by newcomers.
However, outside the few evening hours when there is a large demand and
short supply, the rank would serve no purpose. I'm not familiar with the
site, but limiting the hours of the rank stops cabs from blocking traffic
(or a bus lane?) by sitting on the rank when there is little demand, while
it doesn't stop passengers from standing there and hailing cabs at any time.
So it does make sense!

On Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:26:01 -0500, "Tristán White"
wrote:

Was interested to see a new taxi stand put up outside my office in Queen
Victoria Street, using a special new blue roundel with TAXI in the middle
where UNDERGROUND normally goes.

On "Victoria's Empire" on BBC1 last night (repeated tonight, 19:00,
methinks), there's a quick shot of the Darjeeling railroad station's
signage -- a LU roundel with local script in the horizontal bar and
"Darjeeling" in English underneath.