Boris Watch

Yes, it’s the news no-one has been waiting for, despite what Boris thinks, which is that…
Londoners have waited with stoic patience
Have we?  Not that I’ve noticed.  Anyway, Wrightbus of Ballymena will have the unenviable task of providing…
a new icon of London that not only returns to the Capital the joy of the open platform, but [...]

One aspect of Boris Johnson’s outrageous fares increases that seems to have been overlooked by the media is the doubling in price of a child one-day travelcard from £1 to £2. Currently, an adult travelcard holder travelling together with up to four children can purchase one-day travelcards for them at £1 each. From 2 January, [...]

There was a bit of snow in London today.  It was hardly a shock, it was sleeting/slushy all afternoon and as soon as the sun went down (on the shortest day) it instantly started sticking in large quantities.  Then the slush already on the surface froze and at 16:35 I was on the phone to [...]

Yes, I know, I really need to cover air quality, housing, the Olympics, PPP, shared space and the Policy Exchange debate with Alan Johnson, but first let’s have another of our fact posts where I just bung some numbers up for future reference.  In this case, what’s the spread of per-mile costs for bus tenders [...]

It occurred to me the other day that, with Boris’s policies leading to a 8m km cut in annual bus km operated…
from 486m in 2009/10 to 478m in 2017/18 whereas the previous business plan forecast a rise from 488m in 2009/10 to 504m in 2017/18…
and simultaneously a replacement of bendy buses with up to 40% [...]

Following on from what Helen was looking at yesterday, I’d spotted a quiet nugget on the express bus trial that had escaped attention before.  First, let’s have the manifesto promise:
After talking to local people across outer London I believe there is untapped demand for a select number of new direct, frequent, and reliable services to [...]

Via @prj45 on Twitter, I notice that Andrew Gilligan has apparently disappeared off the face of the Telegraph website.  Whether this was a result of a technical hitch or a long-overdue realisation that a ‘London Editor’ who pointedly refuses to recognise any event that took place in London politics post-May 2008 unless it’s to do [...]

As you may remember, Boris’s 2008 Mayoral Election manifestos mysteriously disappeared from his website soon after the election; the Guardian’s Dave Hill very helpfully retrieved them to aid our memories of Boris’s election promises.
I’ve been re-examining Boris’s Transport manifesto, Getting Londoners Moving, to see how he’s done after more than 18 months in the job. [...]

Helen’s dug up some really good stuff this week, in the form of online scanned-in and searchable editions of Design magazine from the 1960s and 1970s.  Amongst other gems, we’ve found:

articles lamenting the state of London Transport (this is roughly the heyday of the Routemaster, remember, which was 1968-1978)
articles suggesting we follow the Dutch lead [...]

Braying Hammersmith & Fulham moron Harry ‘Phibber’ Phibbs has another of his oh-so-heelarious rants up on ConservativeHome.  Let’s see what’s exercising the man this time:
I’ve been reading the Mayor of London’s Transport strategy.
He can read, ladies and gentlemen.
When I filled in the feedback section I encouraged the Mayor to get a move on in scrapping [...]