Caroline's news

Following Caroline Pidgeon and the London Assembly Liberal Democrats' sustained campaigning on the issue of passengers being overcharged on their Oyster cards for "incomplete" journeys, Transport for London have now formally recognised the issue and begun work to improve the situation.

In response to a Freedom Of Information request from the London Assembly Lib Dems, TfL stated:

We recognise that more can be done and are working to further improve Oyster and the service provided to customers, including improved journey history information and work on a technological solution which we hope to introduce later this year to tackle the issue of incomplete journeys.

Read TfL's full response here.

Speaking on this issue, Caroline Pidgeon told the London24 website:

The current level of overcharging is totally unacceptable. There is something very seriously wrong when each and every week of the year Londoners are ripped off by more than £1 million.
It is vital that TfL and the Mayor find a solution to stop so many passengers being ripped off.

You can read London24's coverage here.

The Evening Standard reports that Transport for London has spend £18 million over the last year in providing replacement buses during Tube, DLR and Overground closures due to engineering work.

Caroline Pidgeon told the Evening Standard:

Caroline Pidgeon AM, leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, is challenging the Mayor over the latest consultation for the proposed Northern Line extension to Nine Elms and Battersea.

After criticisms of last year’s consultation on the proposed extension of the Northern Line Transport for London are now running another consultation exercise until 10 August 2011. The consultation sets out four possible route options, despite the fact that Transport for London and the developers Treasury Holdings have stated that two of the four options are not feasible.

A whole year after Caroline Pidgeon criticised the GLA's wasteful spending on two "business lounges" in City Hall, the Mayor has decided after all to remove them.

Caroline told the Evening Standard: "Spending £25,000 on setting up and furnishing business lounges that are then removed some 12 months later is an extravagance that London council taxpayers can ill afford."

The London Assembly’s Transport Committee, led by Caroline Pidgeon has written to Southeastern trains seeking an explanation for the severe delays yesterday evening, and how passengers – some of whom left the train and walked along the tracks to escape the sweltering conditions – will be compensated.

A broken down train in Dartford caused significant delays to Southeastern services during the evening rush hour, and left passengers on one train stuck just outside Bexleyheath for almost two hours on the hottest day of the year.