Summary
TRANSPORT is one of the few areas of policy over which the Mayor has any real control. Even here, however, his freedom of action is curtailed by Government spending limits, the terms of the Public Private Partnership, the contracts held by rail companies and the unwillingness of Tube passengers to pay even more exorbitant fares than they do at present. Ken Livingstone's transport manifesto, then, which was launched yesterday, must be judged against these funding constraints, and particularly the impact of the Government's three-year spending plan on Transport for London. Given all this, how does his manifesto look? Mr Livingstone's priority during his first tenure was to revitalise bus services, and in this he has been remarkably successful. His aspiration to achieve the same results on the Tube will be more difficult to fulfil. Even fiddling in minor areas is difficult. For instance, Mr Livingstone would like Tubes to run an hour later on weekend nights, but, since the hours available for maintenance are fixed, this would mean services starting later or finishing sooner on other days.
His great ambition is to gain control of suburban rail services. But that is unlikely to happen. The congestion charge has been the most radical change effected by Mr Livingstone. He now proposes to extend the charging area - a move which this paper opposes. However his proposals for making the existing charge easier to pay are entirely to the good. In other areas, Mr Livingstone's ability to improve transport is limited to fiddling with details. In some cases, this can seem like gratuitous meddling - how many people actually care whether their bus driver is a woman or a man? In others, like his desire to phase out cash payments for bus fares completely, it is actually counterproductive. His tendency to over- prescriptiveness can be seen in his insistence that all buses must be accessible for wheelchairs, when a less absolute approach, which would allow some Routemasters to remain in service, would be more popular with passengers. Mr Livingstone's ambitions for London transport are, broadly, sound. It's the Government, however, that will decide whether the next Mayor can actually deliver results.See the full content of this document
Extract
Ken's Transport Manifesto
Mayor's nest egg
INDIVIDUAL and company donations to political parties are much more transparent than ...See the full content of this document
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