Boris Watch

Having said that there’s no sign of a new Routemaster tender out on the OJEU, there is one arena in which Boris-run TfL is forging ahead - hybrid taxis.

Short description of the contract or purchase(s): TfL is actively working towards reducing the carbon footprint of its operations and is now planning to introduce a new initiative to reduce CO2 emissions from the taxi fleet.
The Public Carriage Office (PCO), as part of TfL, is responsible for licensing taxi operations in London and intends to establish a low carbon taxi demonstration project in London. The project will involve the procurement and deployment of prototype low carbon taxis as part of a London-wide trial which will monitor and evaluate the operational and environmental performance of the vehicles.
Suppliers will include everything necessary to support the introduction and operation of such vehicles in the London market and this will include, but is not limited to;
Design, type approval, manufacture and supply of low carbon prototype taxis as well as the continued support for the vehicles during in-service trials for a period of at least one year which will include training, monitoring of vehicle performance, maintenance and repair.

OK, so what do we get?

It is anticipated that the project will require approximately 5-10 vehicles in total, supplied by one or more economic operators. This may vary depending on costs submitted. Estimated value excluding VAT: 910 000 GBP.

So that’s £90-£180,000 per taxi, then.  A normal taxi is about £30-35k, for comparison, so that’s a fair mark-up there, but, as with the Routemaster, if you want bespoke, small quantities of untried designs you need to pony up.

Of course, Boris had something to say about TfL wasting money on hybrids, I seem to recall he…

…claimed his proposals would still be cheaper than the £143 million cost of the 500 hybrid petrol-electric buses Mr Livingstone was planning to introduce.

Petrol?  No matter.  We’ve heard nothing about hybrid buses since from Boris, but taxis are apparently good to go hybrid.  Incoherence again.

What we need to know is - does Boris expect to make a major push towards reducing carbon emissions by introducing hybrid buses or doesn’t he?  If he doesn’t, what difference does he expect a few hybrid taxis to have?  TfL’s press release does trumpet the scheme as reducing carbon emissions, but since taxis emit more CO2 than buses for the same number of people, are they really the priority here?

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