Caroline's news

The London Cycling Campaign took their campaign for safer roads directly to City Hall this week. Their petition calling for local councils across London to provide cyclist awareness training for lorry drivers, was jointly presented to Caroline Pidgeon and London Assembly Members representing all the other main political parties. The LCC petition, which has more than 10,000 signatures, has now been sent onto the Mayor of London.

Commenting on the need to make London's roads safer for cyclists, Caroline said:
"Cycling in London needs to be made far safer. More than one cyclist a month dies on London's roads - that is a shocking figure and is unacceptable."

Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, commenting on the Mayor’s reply to her question at today's Mayor Question Time, asking when the Thames cable car will be open to passengers, said:

"For the Mayor to state that the cable car will be completed when 'it’s good and ready' is totally unbelievable.

"It is simply staggering that the Mayor is throwing around £57 million of public money at the Thames Cable Car yet is totally incapable of giving any assurance as to when it will be open. The Mayor should get on top of this flagship project.”

Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, commenting on the Mayor’s admission made today at City Hall that substantial improvements in capacity on the Jubilee Line will only be completed by the Autumn, said:

“Passengers will find it truly unbelievable that there is yet another delay to when the Jubilee Line will be operating at full capacity, seven days a week.

“Today’s admission is the fourth broken promise made by the Mayor as to when improvements to the Jubilee Line will finally be completed.

Caroline Pidgeon has sharply criticised Southeastern's plans to scale back local train services during the 2012 Games. Commenting on Southeastern's proposals to reduce the frequency of some train services and to even remove some stations from their timetable, Caroline said:

"Ensuring more people can get into London to visit Olympic venues will of course create challenges for Southeastern, however Southeastern's approach to tackling these challenges is completely wrong. Putting on extra carriages and extra staff at stations is the best way to ensure that the needs of local commuters and visitors are both met, while ensuring a reliable service is also maintained.

"Southeastern must listen to the outrage they have created amongst residents in Greenwich and Deptford and back down over their completely daft proposals."

A promise made by the Mayor of London and Transport for London that an improved timetable and increased capacity will be seen on the Jubilee Line from early July will not now happen, according to new documents discovered by Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group.

As recently as the 28th April Transport for London issued a press release stating that a new timetable will be introduced on the Jubilee Line to increase capacity and reliability from 24 to 27 trains an hour “from July”, with the clear suggestion that the improvements would start from the very beginning of the month.

However, only last week, papers tabled at an internal TfL meeting showed that the new timetable was actually planned to only start on 31st July 2011, in effect a month later than promised.