Comments on: Boris Redefines Conductors, Ignores Manifesto

By: Boris’s Copperductors: Update From TfL

Boris’s Copperductors: Update From TfL — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 22:57:46 +0000

[...] remind us what Boris said: “We expect to have the first prototypes of the new bus for London on the [...]

By: Dave Hill: Boris Johnson’s personal style is an important political tool but he should be judged by the substance of his policies – Politics Unlimited | UK politics news

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 19:11:21 +0000

[...] online operations. A constellation of independent bloggers and website publishers – see here and here and here and here and here – have already made an impact, and the blogosphere has the potential [...]

By: anglonoel

anglonoel — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:41:22 +0000

Are those the same PCSOs who, according to a piece in (I think) either the Mail or Telegraph, the other day only solve one crime each every four years?

By: prj45

prj45 — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 22:33:32 +0000

Who’s going to “ting ting” the bell to tell the driver to move off when the platform is clear?

By: Helen

Helen — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:07:30 +0000

This is ludicrous.

Yet again, I saw a little gaggle of BTP CSOs and a Met plod at Hammersmith tube/bus station this morning at 09:30 – obviously peak time for trouble when all the kids are at school, everyone’s at work and the pubs haven’t opened yet.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:43:58 +0000

Very good point well made. Unless you stand behind every hoodie until he touches in, how do you know?

I’m fairly sure this is an option under consideration, but he’s obviously still got no idea how to implement the policy under the financial restrictions currently in place. Clearly someone’s drawn up costings for ‘real’ conductors, with associated impact on fares, and he’s desperately casting about for an alternative.

By: Mark Lee

Mark Lee — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:38:51 +0000

Part of me is actually quite impressed by the sheer deviousness of the way in which he manages to spin and twist his manifesto commitments.

The PCSO idea is pretty impractical, however. PCSOs normally travel in pairs or more on buses, simply because it’s pretty difficult to deal with any toublemakers if you’re on your own.

Any solo PCSOs will be reasonably impotent when it comes to enforcing the law, kids will get off scot free, and therefore public confidence and respect for PCSOs will diminish further.

Aside from anything else, if you’re not employing conductors, how are you going to check people’s tickets / Oyster cards? You can’t exactly issue PCSOs with ticket checking equipment and expect them to do that all day.

You’d therefore end up right back at the start again, with the whole ‘free bus’ argument – particularly with the open back.