Hostility to London?

I wondered whether the election of Boris as Mayor of London would signal an increasingly difficult relationship with the Labour central government.


TFL FUNDING

The opening shots have been fired in a row over tube funding. Mayor Boris has written to Alistair Darling, demanding a bailout of the tube, which is apparently facing a shortfall of £1.4bn.

Transport minister, Lord Adonis, has rejected Boris's demands - which will have the effect of cutting back on station refurbishments and other projects. TfL must 'make do'

The capital is, of course, saddled with Gordon Brown's PFI scheme for the tube, which has so far seen the collapse of the Metronet consortium which was upgrading two-thirds of the tube. The PFI scheme has proved to be a complete disaster for both Underground users and the taxpayer. Years behind with station refurbishments, and, more significantly, with line and signal upgrades, it now seems that upgrades will have to be delayed or scaled-back.

Public transport in London is essential for the continued success of the capital, so if the government is not willing to finance the shortfall, then it will be over to Boris to plug the gap.

The bus service is heavily subsidised. Too many people can travel for free. The young. The old. Aside from the arguments over children causing mayhem on bus services, is there any reason for children to travel for free?

Free travel for children on buses should be abolished. This perk is costing the network between £70m-£80m per year, which the network simply cannot afford.

Speak to any commuter who travels on the tube, and their biggest gripe is that the service is overcrowded. Fares are already cheaper, if using Oyster pay-as-you-go, to travel outside of the peak periods. However, the real issue is that peak periods last for at least three hours, with the evening peak lasting well until 19:30, so I'm not sure there's a lot more that time-of-travel based pricing can achieve.

Fares should rise on the Underground to increase revenue, reduce demand and provide funds for enhancement. Tube users can either choose to pay or they can be displaced on to buses.

No doubt such moves will be desperately unpopular, but the Mayor should make it clear to passengers and voters, that it is the government's failure to finance TfL that is the cause of these changes. Just like they do, he needs to balance the books.

But it should not be all bad news. Increased revenue from the tube could also finance the introduction of an express bus network. Is it really necessary for every bus to stop at every bus stop - often not more than 50 metres apart?

What about an E-prefixed bus network that perhaps stops only every half-a-mile? The journey time would be significantly reduced, not only in an increase in average speeds, but in the fact that dwell time at bus stops, as people board and exit, would be significantly reduced.

Be bold Boris.


LONDON LIVING WAGE

More surprisingly, a row appears to be brewing over the Mayor's 'London Living Wage'. The London living wage is £1.72 more than the national minimum wage of £5.73 and Boris has already promised that it will be paid to all staff employed by the GLA and TfL. It could signal a big pay increase for the army of cleaners on the Undergound. (It should be noted that Ken was a supporter of the living wage).

However, Childrens' Minister, Ed Balls, has said that an artificial 'living wage for London' could distort labour markets and prove poor value for money, and produce inflationary risks.

Yes this is the Labour party. Given the extortionate cost of living in London it seems to me perfectly reasonable to suggest that a higher minimum wage is needed for the capital. Almost all companies, including the public sector, have a 'London weighting' added to salaries to reflect the extra costs of living in the capital. I cannot understand why the lowest-paid workers should not also benefit from a weighting.

Probably, it is because the government is obsessed with tax credits and a whole plethora of central benefits to 'top-up' the wages of low-paid workers rather than just seeing them paid a fair amount in the first place.