Tonight:
2°c
We are facing the toughest spending round in living memory. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond has been asked by the Treasury to accept astonishing cuts — of between 25 and 40 per cent. As I have repeatedly made clear to the Coalition government, I believe cuts of that order would be disastrous for London transport network.
I cannot and will not accept them, and am therefore fighting to preserve and improve our transport infrastructure.
That means defeating the sceptics and ensuring that Crossrail is built. It means fighting for Thameslink and a world-class bus network. Above all it means driving on with the upgrades of the Tube.
The prize is immense. If we can protect our funding, we can complete our work on the Jubilee and the Northern lines, and go on to improve the Piccadilly, the Central and the subsurface lines. It is a programme that means new trains, new track and new signalling, and on 40 per cent of the trains we will soon have air conditioning. If we can keep the Government from cutting the Tube upgrades, we can carry a stunning 30 per cent more passengers on the system.
That will hugely boost the attractiveness of living and working in London — for the simple reason that commuters will no longer have to wait for train after heaving train before they can insert themselves into the mass of sweating humanity like a last pair of socks being stuffed into an overfull suitcase.
That will in turn boost the global competitiveness of London and increase the productivity of the nation's capital — with a yet higher tax yield to be spent on the country as a whole.
There are some who say that these infrastructure investments can wait. What the public cannot see, they argue, the public cannot miss. To them I say, phooey.
We have no choice but to make these improvements, and any delay is a false economy. There are staff currently operating the signalling system with Bakelite switches and levers installed in 1926. We cannot go on like this. We cannot go on haemorrhaging money in an effort to patch up a system that needs wholesale improvement.
We must do away with wasteful and expensive old machinery and by the same token we must take advantage of the savings new technology can bring — and that includes ticketing.
The Oyster card has been a fantastic success. One of our most useful and popular reforms in the past couple of years was to persuade the train operating companies to take Oyster pay-as-you-go on the overground. And as people's habits change, we have a duty to change our systems to reflect reality.
The reality today is that Oyster has been so successful that sales from ticket offices are down 28 per cent in the past four years. Just one Tube trip in 20 now involves use of a ticket office, and the proportion is falling. Studies show that in stations such as North Ealing, Fairlop, Mill Hill East and Wimbledon Park, the ticket offices are selling 10 tickets an hour or fewer.
That is no comment on the zeal and salesmanship of London Underground staff. They often go beyond the call of duty to help passengers. Take the LU staff who recently accosted a samurai sword-carrying chancer at Moorgate. For that kind of bravery, LU staff deserve the thanks of the travelling public.
But we need to think whether such staff really need to be incarcerated behind a glass pane, unable to offer practical help to their customers in the intervals between ticket sales; or whether they could be of even more use out on the station platforms and concourses, visibly helping and reassuring the passengers.
We need to think how we can maximise ever-scarcer resources and ensure that we have a safe and efficient Tube. That is why LU has drawn up new staffing proposals, moving people out of under-used offices to where they can be of greatest use.
Every station with a ticket office will continue to have one, with opening times better matched to demand. All stations will remain staffed at all times and any suggestion that we would compromise safety is utterly false.
It is all the more regrettable, therefore, that these moderate and sensible reforms have been rejected by the leadership of the RMT and the TSSA unions. It would seem that they have cynically decided to try the patience of London commuters and to disrupt the Tube network from this evening and throughout tomorrow.
They will undoubtedly succeed in causing disruption to your Tube service. We are, of course, laying on what help we can — 100 extra buses, marshalled taxi rides, bike convoys and 10,000 more spaces for river passengers — but disruption there will inevitably be.
Where the leadership of the two unions will not succeed is in persuading Londoners that they are right. It is a measure of the weakness of their case that strike action was only supported by a third of their own members.
I believe the vast majority of Londoners will see this strike for what it is — a trumped-up and politically motivated attempt to have a pop at the Coalition government.
And I believe most Londoners will support the large numbers of hard-working Tube staff who know that we need a safe, efficient and upgraded Tube, where we take full advantage of the blessings and savings that come with new technology. Anything else is pure Luddism.
Reader views (16)
"As for going on about ticket sales at stations well find other uses for these offices (e.g sub post offices, cafes and shops) with ticket sales as a side line just like shops sell lottery tickets!"
The point of public transport is to transport the public, not to employ transport workers. Things have obviously gone very wrong if this simple principle has been forgotten. But it would explain why we have a £160bn deficit.
- Pepik, London, 06/09/2010 21:22
So how do you transport people safely without employing transport workers?
Answers to London Transport 55 Broadway, London SW1 -
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 07/09/2010 12:24
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Thank goodness we have a Mayor who is not in thrall to the Unions and their dogma-before-reason approach to daily life.
How can they strike when only 33% of their members voted for it! I feel sorry for the other 2/3 who will be tarred with the brush intended for those who see fit to bring travel misery to millions, just because they want to be able to sit down while they work!
- ST, London, 07/09/2010 09:18
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I see the transport union goons are out in force.
Nice try, lads, but we know the truth. The transport unions have no interest in worker safety - only grubbing money off the already suffering public.
Thanks to morons like Bob Crow, the major surgery I am supposed to have today will probably be cancelled because hospital staff can't get to work. I've instructed my family to sue the unions if I die waiting for another.
Londoners had enough of these idiots long ago, and we're not going to take it anymore. Go ahead and have your little strikes. We could replace you all for much smarter, harder working staff at half your salaries, you greedy, lazy, brainless, shameless terrorists.
- Mel, London, 07/09/2010 06:53
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It's all a matter of the MORLOCKS verses the ELOI (on bikes)
- Richard Merrell, Wentworth Falls, NSW Australia, 07/09/2010 04:32
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"thats why you swan around on that bike of of yours to escape the reality of contact with the transport services. your not fooling me boris."
No, genius, the more militant unions destroy faith in public transport, the more people rely on alternative means to get around London. Its one of the reasons I bike to work - I don't want any part of the RMT's extortion racket.
"As for going on about ticket sales at stations well find other uses for these offices (e.g sub post offices, cafes and shops) with ticket sales as a side line just like shops sell lottery tickets!"
The point of public transport is to transport the public, not to employ transport workers. Things have obviously gone very wrong if this simple principle has been forgotten. But it would explain why we have a £160bn deficit.
- Pepik, London, 06/09/2010 21:22
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i think you should keep uoir insulting comments to yourself.
- james, london.E12., 06/09/2010 20:19
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thats why you swan around on that bike of of yours to escape the reality of contact with the transport services. your not fooling me boris.
- james, london.E12., 06/09/2010 20:14
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Boris states:
"Where the leadership of the two unions will not succeed is in persuading Londoners that they are right. It is a measure of the weakness of their case that strike action was only supported by a third of their own members."
Conversely, almost 75% of the travelling public support the unions as reflected in a poll by LBC radio.
- John B, London, 06/09/2010 19:35
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The only "Luddite" I can see is you Boris stuck in some 1980's timewarp of Thatcher fighting the unions (which are of course made up of ordinary people!).
Sorry, Boris but you have been Mayor for over 2 years and yet despite being supposidly the Chair of TFL (a bit like the MPA!) you have not met the tube unions once! Why are you so frit to meet them?
As for this piece what a load of baloney for it is you who is wasting millions of pounds in replaing perfectly good buses which ironically are pefect for fighting tube and rail strikes!! For no other reason than some warped dogma.
As for going on about ticket sales at stations well find other uses for these offices (e.g sub post offices, cafes and shops) with ticket sales as a side line just like shops sell lottery tickets!
I think the Tube unions should call Boris bluff and go to ACAS and ask them to arrange talks with TFL and the Mayor (in person) about the long-term consequences of changes to ticket sales at stations brought about by OYSTER. This would then mean it would be up to Boris to decide whether he is willing to talk face to face with the unions on what is something that was bound to happen as ticket sales were automated.
As for threats to Crossrail well Crossrail is being built and with the number of holes in the West End and soon City increasing any government that tried to cancel the scheme would look totally inept at the next election.
Boris has still not said why staff need to be reduced?
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 06/09/2010 19:29
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And another point Mr Johnson - this dispute is not a cynical trumped up and politically motivated attempt to have a pop at the coalition government, as it dates back to well before the general election.
Get your facts right.
- Mark (not in the public sector, sorry), London, 06/09/2010 19:11
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"Every station with a ticket office will continue to have one".
Funny how people struggle to understand a simple statement.
And what is the relevance of what Boris said before the election? He was elected in May 2008. Maybe you haven't noticed (perhaps you work in the public sector), but there has been a slight change in the economic environment since then.
Bob Crow makes a six figure salary and drives to work. Of course he doesn't care if he disrupts the commute of millions of people over voluntary redundancies. That's right, voluntary. In the middle of a recession and Bob Crow will shut down London at the possibility of someone being reassigned to a different role.
Its time to ban tube strikes and end this mafia like grip on an essential public service.
- Pepik, London, 06/09/2010 18:00
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Union members must know who is active and who isn't and whilst only 30% odd voted it takes little to no time to cast a vote therefor by default the Union as a whole is probably more in favour than is shown.
Be that as it may this is a political strike and as such can't be allowed to succeed.
The Mayor is seen daily to prattle on about all sorts of things but zip all to get things done save create a cycle lane where cyclists don't know if they are insured or not.
He just doesn;t think things through and has become as irritating as Ken Livingstone, which takes some doing.
The man is a loose canon and must get his act in order or not re-stand because at the moment a dead sheep has more of a chance of winninhg the next mayoral election than he does.
Sort this strike out or resign Boris and cut all the waffle.
- Robert Marshall, London, 06/09/2010 17:02
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No doubt, Kieran and Colin, you would prefer Ken, who always gave in at the last minute. This strike must be faced down.
- Ian F, London, 06/09/2010 15:03
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Boris weren't you opposed to ticket office closures before you were elected?
This is the first step in TfL's plans to save money by cutting essential ataff and making the tube network less safe.
By the way I'm a commuter not an RMT member and Mr Johnson you're a liar.
- Mark Vince, London, 06/09/2010 14:56
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The usual waffling from the scarecrow that is our Mayor.He promised in his manifesto that these jobs would be saved.Why believe him now?.
- colin, barking essex, 06/09/2010 14:38
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"I believe the vast majority of Londoners will see this strike for what it is — a trumped-up and politically motivated attempt to have a pop at the Coalition government."
A bit like your article then Bojo.
- Kieran, London, UK, 06/09/2010 14:24
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