Regular readers will know we hold Caroline Pidgeon AM of the Liberal Democrats in high esteem – she’s bright, hard working and transport literate, which are three things I look for in a politician. Here she is on the Routemater boondoggle:
“Mayor Johnson has always promised the return of a Routemaster-style bus but at no point has he mentioned a public consultation period.
“He’s a keen cyclist and so knows very little about what it’s like to use London’s busy buses. The travelling public must be given a chance to have their say on any shortlist of designs which is drawn up.”
Quite – any consultation ought to be clear about the extra cost to the bus user involved in the scheme. No doubt Caroline will be pleased to see that the judging panel is mostly made up of sober, realistic TfL types who understand that any design has to work as a bus first:
- Peter Hendy – Transport Commissioner – TfL
- David Brown – Managing Director, Surface Transport – TfL
- Clare Kavanagh – Performance Director, London Buses – TfL
- Mike Weston – Operations Director, London Buses – TfL
- Kulveer Ranger – Director for Transport Policy – GLA
- David Quainton – Independent judging panel member with relevant experience in vehicle design and manufacturing [and former Sales and Marketing Director, Alexander Dennis Limited]
Indeed, what is notable is how many of them have previous for opposing Routemasters and defending bendy buses. Gilligan is no doubt frothing – where was his invite?
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8 responses so far ↓
Any design which incorporates an open platform at the back will, I suspect, fall victim to European Union Health and Safety Regulations before it gets off the drawing board, so that aspect of it is a non-starter.
As for your list of Caroline Pidgeon’s undeniable qualities, you might consider adding “ambitious”. It would not surprise me if, following in the footsteps of Lynne Featherstone, she may well have an eye to an eventual seat in Parliament.
Up to last May’s election, her website showed Caroline visiting every London Assembly Constituency with a picture of her in front of some local landmark. The LibDem Candidate selection procedure is nototriously long drawn out and competitive. Caroline managed to get third place on the Assembly List above Geoff Pope, a sitting AM, who came fifth.
Geoff Pope could also be described as “bright, hard working and transport literate” but perhaps not quite so ambitious.
I’m never quite sure on H&S stuff, since a lot of people take the view that everything is banned unless explicity permitted, which is nonsensical. I’m not aware of any reason why open platforms would be banned, but I do suspect there may be reasons connected with insurance and possible risk of being sued that would need to be considered in a professional, objective manner. Both of these are, obviously, the functioning of private enterprise in the British legal system rather than European diktat…
There’s also the question of how much more the bus companies would factor into their tenders to operate routes with open-platform buses – the staff costs are the obvious one here, but again Boris isn’t free and easy with the figures.
I wonder what Kulveer will think of this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7683734.stm
Our traditional “Common Law” is based on the principle that “everything is permitted unless explicitly against the Law” which we find acceptable and sensible. The result is relatively few Laws which have been very carefully thought out by our Westminster Parliament. Unfortunately as integration with the European Union gathers pace, Treaty by Treaty, that is less and less the case.
It may be nonsensical to our way of thinking, Tom, but “that everything is banned unless explicity permitted ” is the basis of the Napoleonic code which is where European Law comes from. Why do you think the European Union is gradually extending its “Competence” (power) in to every area it can? How come 80% of our Laws now originate in Brussels? If you doubt that, check out the Cabinet Office website and read up on the “acquis communitaire” which is the entire body of European Law we have had to swallow.
However I don’t want to spoil your blog with a lengthy diatribe on the subject. The very fact that people can fall off the open platform and may be killed or injured will be enough stop any design with that feature getting off the drawing board.
“Mr Hampson-Ghani said the order would be for “700 to 800 vehicles over a three-year period”. TfL had been in talks with the Department for Transport and the EU, he said, and had reached tentative agreement that regulations do allow an open-platform bus. “We already have buses like that on the roads today.”"
From the Standard today. Like I said earlier, I’ve never been convinced that there’s some Evil EU Plot to stop open platform buses, just that the operating cost is too high and it’s a waste of highly-paid TfL official’s time trying to bring them back.
By the way, on a tangential matter to what Peter was talking about, English Common Law forms the basis of the European Convention on Human Rights, which, far from being a European imposition on Britain, is a British imposition on Europe, to stop them becoming fascists again (clue: if your government keeps being found in breach of it, they’re trying to become more fascist, so vote them out).
Churchill was a key figure in it, along with Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, Nuremberg prosecutor and later Conservative Home Secretary (and the man who hanged Derek Bentley, so not exactly Mr. Softee).
Hilton Holloway cropped up in that article as well.
Come on “input” what do you know. Got any more scoops for us?
Input is, obviously, me – strangely enough I couldn’t use Tom on there, and I had the login already.
I don’t do scoops, I do putting two and two together. I’m a thinker, not a journalist.
Opps sorry!! I meant “newsed1″ to give us a scoop!!