Hi there

I have decided to take a short career break as the company I was working for was ‘not for me’ and I needed to make a hard decision as to whether or not the job came first, or home life and job satisfaction was paramount. I obviously decided that the later, rather than the former, was the case and I finished there last Friday.

To all my former colleagues, I wish you well with your endeavors and hope that all goes to plan for you! For me, this is now time to take a short break, re-charge my batteries and consider the options available to me – of which there are a few thankfully!

Having spent the past 12+ years working in the public transport sector, I am interested in seeing what opportunities arise for me within this field, however, I am also looking into a few possibilities which will encompass my skills, knowledge and experience from within the voluntary sector too.

However, one of the first things we will be doing is booking a holiday to Thailand for next month, so we can go and sort out some things back there, catch up with family and friends, and generally have a relaxing time too!

Will let you know how things are progressing in due course.

Chris

We are looking for a website designer who can come in and re-design the website for our restaurant (ideally using flash). In exchange, you will get full featured credit on the site for your work and free meals – going back to the old barter/trade and exchange ideal!

Interested? Contact me!

Thanks

According to the lead article in today’s London Evening Standard, we are facing weekend tube chaos until 2012 right up until 21 July, 2012. This will mean that Londoners have not had a full weekend tube service for 46 months. In fact, the only time London Underground has been able to run a full weekend service in recent years has been 29/30 December, 2007 and prior to that, the previous date was 30/31 December,2006.

So who is to blame? TfL is appointing the blame at the failure of Metronet and Tubelines who between them where responsible to £10 billion worth of upgrades to the network – this failed. Both Labour and Conservative have shouldered the blame for the failures – at a local and central government level. Ken Livingstone fought against the privatisation of the maintenance and this was imposed bu the Labour Government. So is Labour to blame for this?

No, we need to look back further at the Thatcher period of government, during which time the subsidies to London Transport (as it was) where slashed year upon year. This resulted in little if no maintenance to the infrastructure of the network leaving us with a legacy of out dated signalling systems, tracks which where in need of replacement and rolling stock that was in dire need of modernisation, to name but a few of the issues.

In this time of austerity, should we expect an increase in the funding from central government?

In my view, yes, if they are committed to maintaining their supposed ‘green’ credentials.

Should the current mayor be doing more?

Yes – he needs to take immediate control of the entire infrastructure and management chain, and fight tooth and nail for the funding which is required to provide 21st century London with a 21st century network. We used to have an underground that was a world leader, now it is seemingly a world follower-up.

Interestingly, whilst the network is in what is viewed by some as chaos, LUL has found £60M to soend on legal advice!

Worth noting is, that in the same edition of the Standard, on page 28, is an article about the new fashion of ‘pop up’ restaurants.

The link to the Underground? LUL bosses have  told the owners of one of these new restaurants to change the name of their restaurant or else! Apparently the Underground Restaurant is devaluing the brand of London Underground. So, the £60M has now been added to with LUL bosses taking more legal advice.

Wake up – the devaluation has occurred through the poor management and stewardship of your organisation, not from a fashionable restaurant. The public have lost confidence in the Mayor of London and LUL/TfL’s management of the network. Focus on what is needed – a network which works. Not some of the time and while it is understandable that there will be things that happen from time to time, beyond your control which means you cannot operate a 100% service, but lets aim high shall we?

Londoners NEED, no Londoners DEMAND a weekend underground service.

We pay one of the highest costs per journey in Europe but for what? A replacement bus service? 20 minute delays? Trains being full beyond bursting point (noteworthy that sheep or cattle would not be permitted to travel in such cramped conditions – even though they are generally on a one way journey to become next the forthcoming weekend Sunday roast)? Enough is enough.

The next Mayor of London will be elected on their transport policy – nothing else.

Don’t forget, we have a new section on our blog entitled London Life, in which we are exploring as our first issue, potholes!

Take a moment to visit and let us know about your plague of potholes!

Chris

Today, as part of the expansion of our blog into areas relating to London (with particular reference to the City of Westminster), we have launched London Life which will be addressing a number of topics in the lead up to the local authority and general election.

The first topic we have selected is potholes! They are everywhere and despite the promises of £100M in the budget, this will not even start to address the cost of repairing and maintaining our roads! We want to hear your pothole stories, see your photos, hear what action (or lack of) your council or borough has taken . . . if you happen to live in the City of Westminster and you have a pothole nightmare, please share this with me. I am intending to stand for local election and even though there is little chance of polling 3rd, I am going to give it all I have and there are a couple of issues I have in mind – this being one of them – to highlight.

One of the most clearly populist measures yesterday was a commitment to provide £100m to repair the potholes that have made a moonscape of many British roads in the aftermath of the winter freeze (FT.com)

The cost of potholes does not stop at the cost of repairing the actual hole. Motorists across the Capital have experienced damaged wheel rims, tyres, suspension and even been involved in collisions – all down to holes in the road which the local authorities have not taken steps to fill. Motor cyclists and cyclists are even more exposed to the risks of these (in some cases, gargantuan) holes in the road.

£100M is very nice Mr. Darling, but it is nowhere near enough to repair the net cost of underinvestment by successive Labour and Tory governments in our road infrastructure.

The Mayor of London has made ineffectual postulations and promises – all of which remain to be seen if they are actually worth anything, or are they pure piffle?

So, on we go with potholes. Click on London Life in order to have your say.

What will be the next topic of conversation and debate once we have filled in the potholes?

In no particular order, I am thinking about:

• the proposed changes to parking restrictions in the City of Westminster
• are parking fines being used as a cash stream?
• sustainability of public transport – with a focus on buses in London – what is the way forward?
• trams in London – Boris killed off the excellent proposal for the tram line across the Thames – was he right?
• Northern Line closures – will it kill off the tourist trade to Camden market?
• Weekend underground closures (the bane of ANY Londoner!)