Afternoon:
9°c
Much of my Christmas holiday seems to have been spent travelling on bendy buses, and every time I boarded a 38 or 73 I was treated as at best an irredeemable eccentric and at worst a probable psychopath. Whenever I swiped my Oyster Card, I was met by the uncomprehending stares of the freeloaders all around me.
I saw one other traveller pay - a harassed mother with infants in tow. When she pushed her way to the machine, her fellow passengers told her off for disturbing them, for all the world as if right was on their side. I'd say it's a fair guess that each bendy bus must lose Transport for London £1,000 a day in missed fares - and wouldn't be surprised if the figure was higher. Fare dodging has gone from the exception to the norm.
Last year I asked Peter Hendy, the Mayor's transport commissioner, why he ignored the obvious solution of employing conductors and he grew quite agitated. Didn't I realise that conducting was a dangerous, thankless job? Conductors were abused and assaulted and he didn't want to ask low-paid workers to put up with this wretched working life.
His concern for them was admirable but by taking staff out of harm's way he is passing the risk from them to the passengers. Young women won't travel on buses at night because the only authority figure is out of sight, locked away from danger in a secure driver's cabin.
When I took my 84-year-old mother-in-law to the wonderful new St Pancras, my experience could not have been more different. The staff of East Midlands Trains picked her up, p u shed her wheelchair past the queue and found a ramp to take her on to her carriage. Without their care, she wouldn't have been able to travel. On the other hand, she soon may not be able to afford to travel at all: today brings the traditional New Year fare rises from the rail companies. An open return ticket from London to Bristol will now cost £137 - an extortionate sum for a journey of little over an hour.
Everyone I know thinks London's transport is going badly wrong. The revival of the bus network has been Hendy and Ken Livingstone's greatest achievement in public office. Yet both men seem indifferent to their passengers.
Plenty of people would get out of their cars or use buses more often if they were safe but at present irrational and occasionally alltoorational fears keep them away. By contrast, the rail companies can look after their customers with exemplary courtesy, yet their fares are pricing passengers off the rails.
If we're going to take global warming seriously, then what Margaret Thatcher called "our great car economy" has to go. The only plausible replacement is a cheap, reliable and safe public transport system - yet my experience of buses and trains this holiday suggests that building one remains beyond the wit of politicians and corporations alike.
Reader views (1)
"Conductors were abused and assaulted and he didn't want to ask low-paid workers to put up with this wretched working life."
So, why not pay them a decent wage which would be (re-)covered by the bus companies getting the fares due from everyone.
I also don't quite buy into the "abused and assaulted" bit. Surely, passengers would rally around their clippie? I have noticed recently bus drivers taking a firmer stance by often just stopping the bus and switching off all the lights until trouble makers got off. I also noticed that passengers took up supportive positions.
As an added benefit, we would then perhaps also see an end to 'feet-on-opposite-seats'.
- Robert Zimmerman, London, 02/01/2008 20:21
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