Congestion Charging

As one who earns his living on the streets of London, I would say that congestion charging is essential in reducing not only congestion but pollution too. There was a time when one could look over Kings Cross below the Angel and see a brown film of pollution in the air....................not now!

But for "C" charging to be viable, the public transport net work has to be top level; and I don't care what anyone says - London's is. The bus network is cheap and comprehensive, the Underground and Overground are less cheap but equally comprehensive and fast and for those a little better off there are plentiful cabs and private hire cars. The cycle network too is clearly signposted and intelligently planned so that riding one's bike is often the fastest method!

I don't think Manchester's nearly compares and that is the pertinent point.

I think that you're a little off the mark in your argument. I think that there's been an improvement in a last few years but I don't think that its anywhere near the level of the RATP in Paris, the fantastic tram and Bus network in Zurich, the comprehensive and dirt cheap bus and metro network in Valencia or pick any decent sized German (Berlin, Munich, Hamburg or Koln) or Dutch (Amsterdam and Utrecht) city notwithstanding the excellent tube networks in Stockholm, St Petersburg and Moscow. These are the transport networks that I consider to be top class.

In my 9 years in London the buses have multiplied like sex crazed rats and yet the infrastructure that the underground has to put up with is second rate, especially if you have to use a tube line everyday that either has branch lines at both ends or has signaling equipment that fails every time when exposed to rain or snow.

But where local transport really lets itself down over here in London is the complete lack of integration with other modes of transportation or connections with other underground lines. There is on any given day you can usually wait for 10-15 minutes for decent connections and that isn't good enough especially when you consider how much people are charged for using it. Yesterday for example I had to wait 20 minutes for a connection to the Rayner's Lane/Uxbridge branch of the Piccadilly line. I'm quite lucky in that respect because my place of work gets me a 75% discount of tube fares. I'm pretty sure if I had to pay full whack I would seriously consider moving to another part of the world.

As for the congestion charge. I would actually advocate charging more than the current £8 as I don't think thats a huge price to pay if TFL are serious about reducing congestion. I'm not convinced that charging a 8 quid price tag to drive through London only to find that its still pretty congested because you can't move for buses or mini cabs represents serious value for money. Its equally galling to take the trouble to take the tube into to London and see that there is a hidden congestion charge designed to charge people more for daring to use the tube to get into central London at peak times!

I found an interesting extract from the TFL (Transport for London) website who actually enforce the charge........

"More than five years after the Congestion Charge was launched, and over a year after the Western Extension began, traffic levels are still down but congestion has risen back to pre-charging levels.

However, congestion would be significantly worse without the sustained traffic reductions brought about by the charge."

My point is this. According to the same website it states "By law, all net revenue raised has to be invested in improving transport in London". So whats the point of charging people in order to create more space for more buses? The congestion doesn't improve but the state has yet another way to get more money out of people's pockets without, and this is the key, a credible alternative. The pioneer in Congestion Charging was Oslo in Norway. With the money that has been generated through the charge, they have built 6 tunnels under the city and they've reduced the heavy traffic in the city.

I also don't think that you can include Black cabs in the "top class" transport network because they are so expensive. 40 quid from London to Ealing is robbery which ever way you choose to put a spin on it! I know its all relative but a journey of similar distance in Amman in Jordan cost me about £1.20. in the week I was there I used to give them more because I felt guilty giving them so little. This is a city of almost 2.1 million people without any buses, trams or underground. For the price, convenience or frequency of the network I couldn't fault it at all. They are however a huge amount of roads linked by 7 huge roundabouts called the 7 circles.

I think the transport network in London is heading in the right direction but I don't think we'll be calling it "top class" for at least another 15 years when we might have up to date signaling equipment like the RER trains in Paris enjoy, or more up to date rolling stock seen elsewhere in Europe which is nearly always air conditioned and sometimes even driver-less!

As it stands the congestion charge at its current rate is too low if we're being serious about reducing congestion. It's merely an extra tax to incovenience people who don't have a alternative. A top class transport network means that you have a choice of transportation which is cheap, frequent, convenient and gets you from A to B quicker or as quick by car. We don't have that and we won't for years to come.

Well, you haven't got a huge amount of choice if you're in south london anyway. There's hardly an underground network to speak of and you're at the mercy of the buses and overland trains into central london. Is it 15 miles you do everyday?

I don't think the German, Dutch or Scandinavian cities can be compared with London like for like. Only Paris and Moscow have the same demands made on them and in the case of Paris the bus service is way inferior to London. Moscow I can't comment on.

The problem with London's transport now is that it is back under Tory control and Boris has already vandalised all the work done towards mass transit systems for Euston-Camberwell, Shepherds Bush-Uxbridge and Barking-Dagenham; he plans to take the bendy buses off the streets and re-introduce the Route Master..................the bloke's a f**k**g buffoon on transport, thinks off the cuff, doesn't research and plans nothing through - eighteen carat idiot with his pandering to the Tory dominated West London glitterati in their Lamborghinis and Jeeps in Kensington & Chelsea. It's THEM who have been bunging the ruddy streets up because they can afford to and now he'll let them do it for free................great thinking.