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Mayor rejects flat cab fare to Heathrow
Nicholas Cecil, Political Correspondent17.10.07
Ken Livingstone today rejected the introduction of flat taxi fares from Heathrow to stop passengers being ripped off.
However, black cab drivers will have to agree fares with a passenger before they set off for a destination outside London, or use their meter to charge.
They will not be allowed to simply hit people with a hefty bill once they arrive at a destination.
The Commons all-party transport select committee recommended that the west London airport follow the example of New York's JFK airport in having regulated fares for yellow cabs travelling into the city centre. But the Mayor rejected the proposal, insisting it was not necessary.
The MPs were told that some cab drivers, who cross the London boundary, are charging passengers £50 to £60 for travelling one or two miles, without warning them of the cost, and argued that adopting the New York system would benefit people arriving at Heathrow, particularly business people.
Under the Transport for London Bill, taxi drivers will have to agree a fare before departure or use their meter to run up the charge.
TfL insisted that the scheme at JFK airport of regulated fares operated only to the city centre, Manhattan, and not other districts.
"TfL does not believe it is necessary to introduce a similar system in the capital as it is not aware of problems with the supply of taxis for equivalent journeys from Heathrow to central London," it said.
Reader views (4)
How can Charlie compare Madrid prices with London prices on a like for like basis, shows he he has not got a clue to the costs incurred by the london cabbie, does he expect to hire a driver and a vehicle on a journey that can take up to 45 mins for £18...pleeeeze! he sounds like a once a year cab user. As for Tony, £5 of his fare goes to BAA and in order for him to have a waiting cab at his disposal, that cab driver will have waited in a holding bay for perhaps 4 hours. These drivers would be lucky to carry out three rides a day, my mate waited 6 hours for a ride today (7/4/09). The system is not perfect and one way to reduce the cab drivers waiting time could be the introduction of fixed price cab fare to central london and vice versa to heathrow which would have the effect of increasing the number of jobs to and from the airport and taking back the work from the minicabs. This is only my personal view and would no doubt face fierce resistance from the drivers who regularly work the airport, but since introducing a fixed price of £43 pre-booked to heathrow i have carried more jobs in the last 3 weeks than the whole of last year!As far as i am concerned one more job in my cab is one job less in a mini-cab.
- Kevin Murray, High Wycombe uk
My husband is a licensed taxi driver and I don't know if the general public is aware but each taxi has to pay a fee of £4.48 to pick up a fare at Heathrow airport (the fare is regulated by BAA) for which they will have waited around 3 to 4 hours in the car park. They are not allowed to pick up outside the Metropolitan area and therefore after dropping off their fare at, for example Staines, they return to the airport with an empty cab and therefore have to charge more in the first place to compenstate for this.
- Mrs Angela Peston, Edgware, England
This morning I paid £18 for a taxi ride to Madrid airport same distance roughly as from Fulham to Heathrow. Why are Londons taxis such a rip off and they don't even have air con etc? Best way to and from Heathrow is on the Piccadilly Line. It's quick reliable and costs less than 8% of a black cab fare.
- Charlie, London
I lived in Fulham for years and it used to cost around £50 to get there from Heathrow. I've mentioned this to cabbies who seem to be in complete denial that they charge that much. It's at least sixty to seventy pounds in to the middle of London. Way above what a cab charges in New York, even without the fixed fare which I think only operates on the inward journey and not the journey back to the airport. We really are being ripped off like crazy.
- Tony Mcmahon, London, UK
