Liberal Democrat Group at the London Assembly
by Caroline Pidgeon AM
Every time I walk from City Hall to London Bridge Station, I pass a Second World
War poster with an accusing soldier pointing and asking “Is Your Journey Really
Necessary?”
As a busy politician needing to be out and about meeting people in all London’s towns and districts, I suppose I can truthfully say “yes”. But you can’t stand crammed in a Tube train or unable to get on a bus in the morning without thinking
“there has to be a better way”.
In our document, the Liberal Democrat group at the London Assembly responds to
Mayor Boris Johnson’s long essay Way To Go in which he set out in characteristically rambling style his thoughts on how his revised Transport Strategy might develop.
We believe the Mayor and Transport for London need to think ‘outside the box’. In the era of climate change, and for our own health and well-being, we need to reduce the need to travel. It’s madness to go on developing London as if our expectation is that everyone with a job must commute at the same time every morning. There are lots of ways in which this could be challenged.
When Londoners and visitors do need to travel, we should do it conveniently and efficiently with minimum impact on air quality and carbon emissions. Transport needs to go electric in the capital – and use sustainably generated electricity. An electric tramway connecting south London across the Thames to central and north
London should be the flagship for rapid, high capacity, zero-emission public transport.
Above all, and wherever possible, we need to encourage Londoners to walk and cycle.
Caroline Pidgeon
Vice-chair, Transport Committee, London Assembly
Liberal Democrat transport spokesperson

The common experience of millions of Londoners is struggling their way to work in the morning rush hour on overcrowded rail and Tube trains, buses, trams and the
DLR. All of it is stressful, all of it uncomfortable. Londoners spend the equivalent of one whole month per year travelling to and from work. This cannot be a sensible or efficient use of anyone’s time.
Yet the whole approach of the Mayor of London and Transport for London is
“predict and provide”. Boris Johnson’s Way To Go document [November 2008] refuses to think outside the box, offering more of the same conventional solutions.
The revised London Plan needs to look much more seriously at Greater London beyond Zone One, with inventive ideas for developing vibrant local economies in outer London towns rather than the current concentration on the West End, the
City and Canary Wharf. Transport and roads policy needs to move away from getting everyone into the centre and to support outer London with rapid effective orbital transport links.
The Thames Gateway regeneration area was launched with a claim that a community the size of Leeds would be created. This is a marvellous opportunity to design the area as a series of sustainable eco-villages where people could work from home or walk and cycle to work. Longer trips could be by zero-emission tramway.
Yet the Mayor of London has cancelled the DLR extension to Dagenham Dock.
What we are likely to get instead is a vast soulless housing estate; car-dependent, churning out CO2 and at best served by diesel-engined buses with a few priority measures.
What poverty of ambition !
The Mayor of London needs to give a lead to employers and businesses, encouraging them to move to flexi-time for all their staff so fewer people are travelling between
7am and 9.30am. He could set an example by promoting initiatives for City Hall and other “GLA family” staff to work from home using remote IT access at least one day a week. Working in partnership with London First, the London Chamber of
Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses the Mayor should be looking for viable schemes to make home working and video or phone conferencing far more widely used in London.
The new London Plan, as it evolves, must consistently look to develop a capital city where people need to travel less often and less far. This means keeping essential public services (health, police, post offices and so forth) local, not consolidating them into larger and more distant centres. It means encouraging small local businesses and shops. It means encouraging home deliveries, and not just those relying on the internet.

The Mayor’s revised Transport Strategy must be developed hand in hand with the
London Plan so that the sustainable eco-friendly city we want to develop is matched and served by a public transport system which also supports that vision.
Because the most natural way of travel for humans – walking – does not involve huge civil engineering projects or innovative technology, transport planners all too easily overlook it. In a city streetscape, walking should be our top priority, and it should be made as pleasant and convenient as possible.
‘Walkability’ should be the key test for the Mayor of London for both his planning and transport policies. Can the trip be walked, and if not, why not ? In central
London we need whole new areas pedestrianised. When the Mayor works with
Borough Councils on new developments, new housing, supermarkets and business parks need to be located so people can reach them on foot – particularly GP surgeries, dental practices, libraries and other local services.
The redesigned Trafalgar Square is a pleasure for those on foot, even if traffic movements need considerably more thought. But we could go much further. How delightful it would be for shoppers and visitors alike to enjoy central London if all the minor streets between Haymarket/Regent Street and Charing Cross Road right up to and including Oxford Street were redesigned to put pedestrians first and access for vehicles second. Chinatown gives a flavour of what can be done, and Soho would be much more attractive with its own unique streetscape for those on foot.
Liberal Democrats have been calling for Oxford Street to be pedestrianised since before the 2004 Mayoral election. This world-famous shopping street is in danger of being overtaken by its rivals abroad where walking is enjoyable – and by rivals locally like the new Westfield shopping centre in Shepherds Bush, or popular and well-established centres like Bluewater or Thurrock.
Now that work has begun on the new Crossrail station at Tottenham Court Road, and some of the 23 bus routes that clog Oxford Street in a fug of diesel fumes are having to be diverted, we have a golden opportunity to make a clean sweep and start again.
At the very least, we need most of Oxford Street paved over, with trees and seats and space for pavement cafes, leaving an access lane for an electric public transport shuttle between bus stations at Marble Arch and Centre Point. Black cabs could serve Oxford Street by north-south routes crossing the shopping street.
Pedestrian crossings must continue to give sufficient time for all those on foot – including the elderly and infirm – to cross safely. While we are in favour of keeping traffic moving and using smart traffic light technology to reduce delays, this must not be at the expense of hard-won pedestrian priority. We want to see railings and cages removed from London’s streets.

The embankments and riverside paths along the River Thames provide excellent opportunities for walking safely away from road traffic. We could be much more ambitious, with new schemes for enhancing footways along the river banks.
Signage and information is crucial to encouraging walking in London. Most visitors rely on the iconic Tube map to get around, and use it to navigate, often taking the
Tube for short trips where it would be quicker to walk. Street signs should show the time it takes to walk ( “10 minutes to Piccadilly Circus”) and posters at Tube station entrances in central London could point out “it’s quicker to walk” to attractions within easy walking distance. We need a Walking Map as iconic and easy to use as the
Tube map – perhaps the Mayor could announce a competition?
Liberal Democrats are delighted that finally the Mayor of London is developing a cycle hire scheme for London like the one we proposed back in 2001. London should not have needed to wait while Paris got its Velib scheme to match those in Barcelona,
Oslo and many other continental cities. For people – especially those arriving at key public transport hubs – to be able to use their Oystercard to “liberate” a bike they can use free for half-an-hour and “dock” it after use at a convenient point, will develop a whole new cycle-friendly culture in the capital.
Over one third of London households own at least one bike and over half of all trips in London are under two miles long. But many Londoners have a reasonable fear of death or serious injury if they ride their bikes in central London, or even in outer
London town centres. They also fear their bikes will be stolen. The Mayor needs urgently to address both fears and get TfL to make cycling a priority mode of travel in the capital.
We look forward to seeing the Mayor’s proposed cycle express routes from outer to central London and expect to see at least one operational by the end of 2009; so good that it is hailed a striking success by all London’s key cycling organisations.
Liberal Democrats are dismayed by the Mayor’s cut of half the funding for London
Cycle Network Plus. A huge amount of time and money has been spent by volunteers researching and consulting on the LCN+ network, which must not be wasted. If we leave the most dangerous and expensive sections of the network unfinished, the Mayor will betray all those who would love to give up train, bus, tram and car and make their journeys by bike. He will also seriously undermine the cycle hire scheme.
As well as making the streetscape much safer for cyclists, and opening up parks and non-street routes for cycling, the Mayor needs to work with Boroughs to ensure that enough secure parking is available – for example sturdy “Sheffield” stands.
Parking needs to be well lit and monitored by CCTV. We would like to see trials of making simple equipment available at cycle parking stands – easily used tyre pumps and puncture repair kits.
In the suburbs we need local cycle hubs to relieve traffic congestion in town centres and increase the use of bikes for local trips. Good quality cycle training needs to be available in all schools and also for adults. Locally conditions should be made favourable for pupils to cycle to school.

In Amsterdam 30% of journeys are by bike, and nearer home Cambridge now manages 28%. Neither of these remotely compares with London and its 7.5 million population. But surely we can manage more than 5%?
Improving air quality and reducing harmful emissions for all Londoners, but especially children with asthma and people with respiratory problems, is a pressing necessity. The UK is already seriously in breach of EU regulations and has yet to come up with an acceptable plan.
London must aim to lead the world in commissioning zero-emission public transport, using sustainably generated electricity wherever possible.
Air and high-speed rail
The disgraceful and irresponsible decision of Gordon Brown’s government to attempt to go ahead with a third runway at Heathrow will make the emissions problem very much worse. Liberal Democrats have campaigned against expansion of any of South East England’s airports and will continue to fight the battle. The
Government’s promises on mitigating the environmental effects of the third runway, in the light of their cavalier disregard of solemn undertakings previously made, are not worth the paper they are written on. We urge the Mayor of London to make good his promise to challenge the Government’s plans for Heathrow in the courts.
What we need is a high-speed rail link built between Heathrow and Birmingham – via St Pancras – to connect with existing track for journeys to the North and
Scotland that will be significantly quicker, from airport to city centre, than existing inland flights. We need to open up the Channel Tunnel rail link to the Dutch and
German railways so that many of the short-haul flights out of Heathrow can be replaced by high-speed rail journeys.
Heathrow and London’s other airports need to be made better, not bigger. The new
Crossrail station in the City at Farringdon gives us a superb opportunity to design in from the start a secure baggage check-in for three of London’s airports – Gatwick and Luton via Thameslink, and Heathrow by Crossrail – on the model of Hong
Kong’s airport. In the fullness of time extending Crossrail to Stansted could also be considered.
Every encouragement should be given to Londoners to use Eurostar for trips to the
Continent. The rail/Tube/bus interchange at Vauxhall should be enhanced to make it easier for passengers to transfer from South West trains to the Victoria line. We propose a new express coach service to be commissioned by TfL to connect south
London town centres with the new Eurostar international rail station at Ebbsfleet in
Kent.
Park and Ride
The Mayor’s first Transport Strategy undertook to explore the options for developing Park and Ride schemes as a way of reducing the number of car journeys made into London from beyond the GLA boundary. Nothing has happened since.

How much more sensible it would be if there could be several Park-and-Ride facilities built at points where overground rail lines intersect with the M25.
Underground car parks connected by spurs from the motorway need not disfigure the countryside, and could open into new rail station platforms. Attractive fare/parking deals would go a long way to reduce unnecessary car traffic along congested “red routes” into London.
Express coaches for outer London
Regenerating and developing local economies in outer London’s towns requires much better public transport links than we have at present. The development of
London Overground, TfL’s rail line which now provides an inner circle by connecting the North London line with the revamped and extended East London
Line will provide excellent new links if the final section from Canada Water via
Peckham to Clapham Common is funded.
In the short to medium term, we are not going to be able to afford orbital rail links closer to the GLA boundary. The Mayor of London should keep his election promise to trial a number of express or limited stop bus links between outer London towns.
We back the Fastbus project in West London to link Wembley with Acton via the
Park Royal business park – the biggest such area in western Europe.
Transport for London seems rooted in a belief that buses must be red and stop at every other lamppost. Yet many long-distance commuters from outside London have season tickets for comfortable express coaches bringing them to work from Kent and
Oxfordshire. We need such services linking outer London towns for rapid and reliable journeys, guaranteeing each passenger a seat and providing a level of comfort comparable with the private car. TfL is in a position to press manufacturers to develop a hybrid-engined coach which could be operated on such services.
Greening the fleet
21 st century public transport needs to have the lowest possible carbon footprint, aim at zero emissions, and use sustainably generated electricity. Liberal Democrats accept that London leads the way compared with the UK’s other cities, but we still have a long way to go.
London has 8,300 buses and the vast majority of them have conventional diesel engines. 27% of them only reach Euro II standard, and a mere 7% meet the latest EU standard of Euro IV. Obviously we welcome the Mayor’s announcement that 356 hybrid-engined buses will be in operation by 2011. But good as this is, it means that only 4.3% of the fleet will be hybrid-engined. Mayor Johnson will do well if he gets his new “green” Routemaster on the road in significant numbers by 2012.
London’s black cabs – let alone licensed private hire vehicles – are long overdue for
“greening”. The London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory [LAIE] estimates that black cabs cause some 37% of the most hazardous road transport emissions (exhaust
PM2.5) in the most polluted parts of London in 2010. At the very least, the Mayor should require all licensed taxis driving in the most polluted areas to meet Euro 4 emissions standards for particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen by 2010.
Between them, the Metropolitan Police, the Fire Service, and Transport for London operate many thousands of vehicles, as do the London Boroughs. They have the purchasing muscle to persuade manufacturers to develop electric or hybrid or

hydrogen cell vehicles. The Mayor and City Hall need to lead the way, and back green technologies.
A zero-emission tram for central London
For high demand routes, there really is no substitute for tram systems – a solution popular and ordinary in most other European cities. Liberal Democrats champion the zero-emission Cross River Tram, connecting Peckham and Brixton with Euston and Camden across Waterloo Bridge. The project has huge regeneration benefits for deprived communities in south London, especially those without access to the Tube.
The Mayor supinely axes this flagship project, a supremely “green” solution, because the Government refuses to earmark funding for it. On this basis Crossrail would never have been built. The Mayor should be leading and organising all key stakeholders and supporters of CRT in the same way that people campaigned for
Crossrail – which also did not have agreed Government funding until very recently.
That did not stop the necessary work of preparation.
It is extraordinary that a Conservative Mayor, presumably favouring private enterprise, has yet to explore seriously the possibility of putting together a commercial consortium to build the Cross River Tram without depending on
Whitehall funding. Using the very latest high-tech tram technology, they could vastly reduce the costs of a traditional tramway. “Yes, we can” needs to replace “No, we can’t” in the Mayor’s office at City Hall.
Renewing the Tube
Gordon Brown as Chancellor imposed the 30-year Public Private Partnership (PPP) on London, against the will and legal challenges of our elected Mayor, and
Londoners are still picking up the bill for its absurd and counter-productive structures. London Underground is making a good job of picking up the pieces from the Metronet bankruptcy, and the Tube Lines private consortium has had many recent successes. But there is an alarming funding gap of at least £1 billion for the
2010-17 period, and as the perpetrator of the PPP, Gordon Brown has an absolute duty to fund it.
The priority for the Tube is a more frequent and more reliable service, and the key to running more trains is better signalling and renewed track. Whatever can be done to use new high-tech solutions to get work done more efficiently, should be done.
Innovation and best practice should be actively shared between private sector Tube
Lines and public sector “Metronet” managed by London Underground.
The Mayor should be pressing for the highest possible proportion of the Tube’s electric power sources to be generated sustainably.
Many areas of Greater London do not have access to the Tube network. People living well away from central London are utterly dependant on overground rail – if they are forced to commute into work every day. Yet at present their elected Mayor has only the most tenuous influence on Network Rail and the train operating companies. There seems some willingness at the Department for Transport to grant the Mayor more oversight of commuter rail and we must press for more successes in this area.

Passengers need more frequent and more reliable services so they are not so crowded and uncomfortable. They need staff on stations at all times when trains are running, and wherever possible, staffed ticket offices. They need to be able to use
‘Pay As You Go’ Oystercards at all Greater London’s overground rail stations and on all rail lines.
The 24-hour Freedom Pass is very welcome, but the Mayor should negotiate with train operating companies to ensure it can also be used on overground rail. Older
Londoners who depend on rail need to get to 9 am hospital appointments just as much as those who can use the Tube or bus.
More capacity requires investment in new signalling and where possible, platform lengthening so that longer trains can be run. Consideration could be given to reopening long closed stations – Camberwell and Primrose Hill perhaps ? A partnership between the Mayor, TfL and Network Rail could bring forward much needed upgrades.
The long-awaited Crossrail project is to be managed by TfL under the Mayor’s oversight – a huge and highly beneficial undertaking very largely funded by
Londoners. The Thameslink programme, upgrading London’s north-south railway, and rebuilding stations like Blackfriars and London Bridge, will (at £5.5BN) cost the Government itself even more the Crossrail. Yet the Mayor has no direct say over
Thameslink.
Obviously the Mayor of London has to cooperate actively with stakeholders far beyond the GLA boundaries in managing trains that run into London. But if overground rail services are ever to be properly integrated with bus, Tube, tram and
DLR, the Mayor must be granted oversight of the franchise conditions for all train companies operating to London’s suburban stations, and an active relationship with
Network Rail.
A growing number of Londoners, not least business people working at Canary
Wharf, are enjoying the efficient and comfortable scheduled boat services on the
River Thames.
Thames Clippers now carry over 7,000 passengers a day. While obviously this is a relatively small volume, we believe it could be expanded considerably with vigorous promotion and advertising. Services should be extended further up river. It is unclear to us why the Mayor believes river passenger services should have to be run at a profit when he spends £700 million a year subsidising bus services.
The river embankment should provide splendid opportunities for walking and cycling, though in places the two need careful separation. Although improvements have been made to the footways in recent years, it should be made much easier to walk along the river bank, and we need a coherent scheme for piers and the embankments.
Projects to give pedestrians priority on some of London’s smaller streets need to ensure that surfaces are designed to help people who are partially sighted. They

would also be helped with stricter enforcement against cars being parked on pavements, and bins, boards, and signs cluttering the footways.
Equally the needs of those who are deaf or hard of hearing need to be fully considered. Induction loops at ticket offices often do not work. Rail stations rely entirely on audible announcements for urgent and emergency announcements. This must change.
Step-free access is notoriously difficult and expensive to provide, especially in Tube stations designed in Victorian times. We believe the programme needs to concentrate on stations close to the city’s key locations and its tourist sites. In some cases imaginative redevelopment of property above Tube stations might help with funding step-free access.
Road space is always going to be limited in a city like London, and the closer you are to the centre, the more limited it will be. Public transport – which includes black cabs – should be so convenient and reliable that most people will not choose to drive in inner London. But some trips are indeed necessary, and traffic must be kept moving.
Car clubs are an excellent innovation – already very popular in Germany – enabling people to have convenient use of a car close to where they live without the need to buy their own. The Mayor could do much more to promote car clubs by giving them priority, and encourage club operators to use hybrid-engined vehicles.
It is excellent that so many of London’s schools now have “green travel plans” and schemes like the “walking bus” where crocodiles of accompanied children can walk safely from home to school. Safe cycle routes for pupils also need to be developed.
Dedicated bus services (the yellow school bus, as in the US) could work well in some places. However, it may be more practical to arrange for buses to start outside individual schools at “home time” to avoid fare-paying passengers feeling invaded by boisterous school pupils.
Perhaps school hours could be reconsidered. We all know how much easier traffic is in the morning peak during school holidays. We need to make the “school run” a thing of the past.
Freight and deliveries are absolutely key to London’s functioning economy and the health of businesses large and small. Now that improved technology and good practice can substantially reduce noise, we need to re-think night-time deliveries, avoiding unloading in busy streets at peak hours. “Consolidation centres” where
HGVs can unload in outer London with (perhaps electric?) vehicles taking loads on to local destinations need to become the norm in managing deliveries.
The Congestion Charge for the central London zone has been and can still be a success in keeping unnecessary traffic to a minimum, especially once the Mayor has established effective control of road works. Businesses benefit from less congested streets because deliveries can be more efficient. Bus and black cab journeys are more rapid.

The Low Emission Zone is ensuring that grossly polluting lorries are not fouling
London’s air, and we now need to give consideration to a new “inner ring”, setting even higher standards of emission reduction for the highly polluted areas of central
London.
As we have said, we want many more of London’s streets, especially those noted for their character and unique charm, to be places where those on foot have priority. We want all those who travel in London to enjoy the experience much more than they do at present.
But, for the new century, we need leadership from the Mayor of London for a serious re-think of work patterns, commuting and our life/work balance. Nowadays we have a fantastic range of technology and communications at our fingertips, unthinkable even twenty years ago. It can develop still further, if we make the right demands.
We are not adapting to its possibilities in changing our lifestyles and our need to travel.
Is your journey really necessary ?
January 2009