Travel

Boris Johnson has announced that bus and Tube fines are set to rise by 60 per cent from £50 to £80 in time for the London Olympics.

Additional ticket inspectors and police will be assigned to catch fare evaders.

The mayor said: “It’s reasonable in these tough times when so many Londoners are paying. It’s not right that some people are effectively stealing from other people.”

Last year fare dodgers cost the network £63.2 million – with 98,000 penalty fares handed out.
Tube chiefs expect this behaviour to increase during the 2012 Games, when the network can expect an extra one million passengers a day.

In a letter to politicians Boris Johnson wrote: “I am considering whether to increase the amount of the penalty fare imposed on TfL services to £80 reduced to £40 if paid within 21 days. If such a change was made, it is proposed that it would take effect from 2  January 2012.”

However, leader of the London Assembly’s Lib-Dem group Ms Pidgeon said the Mayor had failed to bring down far dodging on buses. She is in favour of a penalty fare increase but noted that Boris Johnson axeing of the bendy buses had not tackled the issue.

She said: “Boris Johnson promised Londoners that he would cut fare fraud, especially on buses.
“Sadly, after being Mayor of London for more than three years it is crystal clear that he has totally failed to tackle this issue.

“The fact that fare evasion, especially on buses, increased last year under Boris Johnson is shameful.”
Mr Johnson is required to launch a consultation of the penalty increase under the Greater London Authority Act 1999.

Thousands of London commuters today suffered major disruption after night engineering
failures, with more closures are planned for this weekend.

The Jubilee and Metropolitan services were disrupted during the morning peak after Tube
engineers failed to complete work in the Neasden area in time.

The Central line was also disrupted when a contractor did not book off after his shift,
meaning the track had to be searched.

The delays follow a week of line breakdowns across the Transport for London network.
Bob Crow, the RMT union leader, said: ‘Despite all the assurances from Tube chiefs
we are back into the cycle of breakdowns and failures which are directly related to the
continued problems with both fleet and infrastructure across the network.

‘We warned that maintenance cuts would impact directly on services and today’s chaos
proves that our fears are well founded.’

With the month-long part closure of both the District and Circle lines between High Street
Kensington and Edgware Road stations, 5 of the network’s 11 lines suffered disruption this
morning.

The entire Circle line will also be closed for upgrade work this weekend, with major
works also meaning no trains on the Hammersmith & City line between Baker Street and
Hammersmith and the suspension of the Piccadilly line between King’s Cross St Pancras
and Cockfosters.

A TfL spokesman said this morning’s Jubilee and Metropolitan line disruption was the
result of a defective rail found near Neasden during an overnight inspection.

Further afield, dozens of rail passengers were forced to flee their compartment after being
attacked by wasps. A swarm of the stinging insects flew through a carriage of the Brighton
to Bedford Thameslink service yesterday.

Rail staff moved passengers into a different part of the train and sealed the carriage. Andy
Strang, an IT worker said: ‘It didn’t make for the easiest journey into work.’

Thousands of holiday makers have seen their bookings cancelled since the tour operator Holidays 4U went into administration.

The Brighton-based operator specialized in holidays to Turkey and 50,000 have been left looking for last minute alternatives. 13,000 sunseekers are still abroad but are protected by the Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (Atol) scheme run by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

A spokeswoman for the CAA said: “Following discussions with our Atol team and Onur Air (the Turkish airline used by Holidays 4U), the airline has said it will fly home Holidays 4U clients as normal over the next week to 10 days.”

“Those who were due to leave for Turkey should be aware that there are some good holiday deals around as they long as they are prepared to be flexible.

“We are advising those who booked through a travel agent to return to that agent and see what’s on offer.”

Olympics organisers today warned that Londoners will need to ‘travel differently’ during the
2012 Games, exactly one year ahead of what is likely to be the busiest day of the event.

The Government is predicting that an additional 3 million trips will be made in the capital
on August 3 2012, which is the first day for track and field events. These extra trips will be
on top of the normal 12 million trips on public transport in London on a daily basis.

To mark the beginning of the one year countdown, Transport Minister Norman Baker
visited BT’s offices in the heart of the capital as the company showcased new techniques
for businesses and individuals to communicate with their office and clients.

Mr Baker is urging Londoners and commuters to reconsider their normal travel
arrangements during the Olympic Games and is recommending that those who live close
to work should cycle or walk. Commuters who live further away are being encouraged
to try different routes, avoid peak journey times, work remotely from home or use video
conferencing for meetings.

Mr Baker said: ‘The Games will be a once-in-a-generation test for both our transport
system and our adaptability. As we edge ever closer to the Olympics, hand-in-hand with
new investment must go new solutions.

‘It’s time to oil the creaking bike, dig out the walking boots, work out how to use the video
conferencing equipment, and fire up the laptop gathering dust at the back of the cupboard.’

Serco, the firm that runs the Boris Bike scheme, has been criticised over
its ‘unfortunate’ performance after 15,000 charging errors.

Transport for London is withholding about £5 million of payments and the firm
has been given a ‘critical improvement plan’.

14,937 customers have received refunds for access or usage charges since
the cycle hire scheme was launched in July 2010. In May alone, almost 600
people had money withdrawn from their accounts for hires they had not made.

Most customers were overcharged by less than £10, but 24 had over £50
taken and one cyclist lost £300. Serco has refunded overcharged customers
and paid over £6,000 in compensation as a ‘goodwill gesture’.

A TfL spokesman said: ‘We have issued Serco with a critical improvement
plan as the service they have provided for our Barclays Cycle Hire users has
not reached the consistently high standard we expect.

‘The plan details what we need to see delivered for Londoners and we expect
to see immediate improvements.’

Green Party mayoral candidate Jenny Jones, the Green Party mayoral
candidate for London, commented today:

‘Like most Londoners I’ve been very excited by the bike hire scheme and I
believed that the glitches would get sorted fairly quickly. Sadly, the Mayor
has failed on the detailed working of a scheme which has been riddled with
technical problems.

‘Overcharging is one of the more visible problems, but the biggest complaint
seems to be the failure of bikes to release and people having to walk ages to
find one that works.

‘The Mayor has clearly stated that he needs to resolve these problems before
he expands the scheme to east London and I hope he manages to get a grip
on things in time for the 2012 Games.’

Mr Johnson said in response: ‘It is unfortunate that such errors have
occurred.’ Yet he added: ‘It is important to note that over five million journeys
have been taken on scheme cycles, meaning refunds have been issued for
some 0.3 per cent of all journeys.’

The Northern Line was suspended through central London during this morning’s
peak travel time, delaying tens of thousands of commuters across the capital.

Underground trains were halted between Camden Town and Kennington after the
signals failed at Charing Cross from the 5.30 am start of service.

The Northern Line carries more than 650,000 passengers a day, making it one of the
busiest lines on the Tube network.

London Underground ran shuttle services between Brixton and Kennington and
between Camden Town and Edgware and High Barnet during the delays. Services on
the line resumed around 9 am, but with delays.

London Overground travellers also suffered severe delays between Stratford and
Highbury & Islington after one passenger was taken ill at Hackney Central station.

The delays come ahead over the first of four Tube strikes, which will affect services
on Sunday evening, with potential knock-on disruption during Monday morning’s
peak travel time.

1,500 drivers belonging to the RMT union will be involved in the strike, which is a
protest over the sacking of Northern Line driver Arywn Thomas. The drivers will
refuse to work from 9pm Sunday until 3 am Monday, meaning trains could be out of
place for the 5.50 am rush hour start.

A spokesman from London Underground predicted that the strikes will have ’little or
no impact’ to services Monday morning.

Talks between RMT and London Underground broke down this week at Acas, the
conciliation service. Thomas was officially sacked for alleged abusive behaviour
towards colleagues, but he denies the charge. The RMT argue that the ‘real reason’
Thomas lost his job was because he took a major part in organising last year’s Tube
strikes.

Three more strike are planned to begin Monday 27 June, which will affect visitors to
the Wimbledon Tennis Championships.

Andy Murray today reached out to tube bosses and union leaders in the hope of averting the strike action that will affects thousands of those travelling to Wimbledon.

He said: “I am hoping it all gets sorted out before Wimbledon starts. I know lots of fans have bought their tickets and can’t wait for the action to start.” A wave of public sector strikes over job cuts is also threatened for this summer.

The strike action, organised by the RMT union over the sacking of a tube driver, would involve a series of walkouts beginning on Sunday and continuing into next week.

RMT leader Bob Crow said: “This trade union would not be worth its salt if we didn’t stand up and fight injustice. It’s not too late to make amends rather than plunging London into a series of Tube-wide actions. There is still time to put right this wrong.”

RMT leaders are demanding that the sacked driver, Arwyn Thomas, is given his job back. He was fired over alleged abusive behaviour towards colleagues. He insists that he is innocent and is awaiting a full tribunal later in the month.

Mayor of London, Boris Johnson has said that the “pointless” strikes would only be hurting the thousands of tennis fans looking forward to Wimbledon.

He said: “Thousands of Londoners will be looking forward to cheering on their tennis heroes at Wimbledon and it is mystifying that the leadership of the RMT wish to go on strike in advance of a tribunal decision that Transport for London said it will abide by and which is expected shortly. I urge them to resolve their issues through discussion, not pointless strike action.”

Experts predict that the cost of commuting into London could hot £10,000 a year following a relaxation of the cap on fare hikes.

Figures from the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) show that commuters from Swindon are currently forking out £7024 a year for rail travel which, based on inflation forecasts, will rise to £9016 by 2015. These passengers are also paying £592 for yearly tube passes, also set for a big hike.

Maria Eagle, shadow transport secretary said “With the cost of using the Underground, the cost of travelling into London to work is set to break through the eye-watering £10,000 mark”
“For many the cost of getting to work is now the biggest single item in the monthly budget, bigger even than rent or mortgage payments. It cannot be right that people are expected to spend such a high proportion of their income just to get to work.”

She insisted Labour will oppose the rise in regulated fares by RPI inflation plus three per cent until 2014.

CBT reported that fares from Guildford will hit £3743, Oxford £5268, Canterbury £5556, Bournemouth £6962, and Norwich £8395 by 2015.
However, Transport Secretary Philip Hammond claimed that the rises were necessary to fund key rail network developments.

A Government aide said: “Yet again Labour have jumped on the first bandwagon that has come along. They haven’t even finished their so-called policy review and yet they are already opportunistically announcing that they can’t support our difficult decision to raise fares,”

“As ever, Labour have completely failed to set out what their alternative would be.”

Furthermore, other figures from the CBT show that Tube delays account for three days of the working year for some commuters and journeys are taking longer than scheduled, totalling 20 hours for the year.

London Underground (LU) drivers are planning to stage another series of strikes in
a continuing row over the sacking of a colleague. The Rail Maritime and Transport
(RMT) union said that its members would walk out on four occasions between June
19 and July 1, threatening travel chaos for millions of commuters and overseas
visitors to the capital.

The union is disputing the sacking of Northern Line driver Arwyn Thomas, who is
currently awaiting the result of an employment tribunal. London Underground,
however, said it was ‘mystifying’ that strikes were being threatened before the
tribunal’s decision was announced.

Bob Crow, the RMT leader, said the union had made ‘every possible effort to get
Arwyn Thomas back to work and it is the intransigence of LU management, who
have dragged their heels and failed to reach agreement over the past month, that
has left us with no choice to put this strike action on.

‘This is a clear cut case of victimisation and RMT calls on LU once again to stop the
delaying tactics, and the continuing waste of hundreds of thousands of pounds that
they have thrown at this case, and get Arwyn Thomas back to work.’

An LU spokesman said: ‘It is completely mystifying that, having agreed with LU that
the tribunal process should take its course, the RMT leadership is now threatening
strike.

‘We committed in good faith to legal discussions ahead of Mr Thomas’ tribunal.
Unfortunately, no agreement was reached. We have always made clear to the RMT
that we would respond appropriately to the tribunal’s finding.

‘We remain determined to improve the industrial relations climate and have
been working with the RMT to ensure a jointly sponsored independent overview
of disputes takes place. This recent positive engagement makes it all the more
incredible for the RMT leadership to threaten Londoners with strike action once
again, particularly as it was backed by just 29 per cent of its members.’

Passengers risked serious injury following several malfunctions of a busy rush-hour train stranded in a tunnel outside King’s Cross.

Having been stuck for more than two hours in rising temperatures, some passengers used the emergency opening mechanism to climb out of the doors, only for the train to start moving again.
When the commuters climbed back inside the train, they were horrified to see that for the remaining mile of their journey, three sets of doors were left “fully open”. Rail safety chiefs today initiated a widespread investigation into the incident.

The Brighton to Bedford First Capital Connect service had more than 500 passengers on board, many of whom were standing. The train broke down at 6pm, right in the middle of rush-hour, with two of the carriages still in the tunnel.

Due to problem with the overhead power cables, lights and ventilation system shut down leading to rapidly rising temperatures. Commuters had to wait two hours before another train was brought to move the stationary carriages.

By the time the other train arrived some passengers had already exited the train by using the emergency release handles.
The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) reports: “The train began to move at 9.03pm but this movement was immediately stopped because passengers were getting out on to the railway from the carriages within the tunnel.”

Commuters were ushered back onto the train and it finally started making its way toward Kentish Town. However, as RAIB reported, “three sets of doors towards the rear of the train still fully open,” Although the incident occurred on May 26th, details of the incident have only just come to light.

A First Capital Connect spokesperson said: “We are fully supporting the RAIB investigation and have commissioned an independent investigation into this incident as well. This will be made available to passengers.”