London-wide + Greenwich stories

Caroline Pidgeon grills TfL over Dial-a-Ride

Caroline Pidgeon has been at the forefront of the examination of Dial-a-Ride's performance across London. Caroline has already asked extensive questions to the Mayor and is now ensuring further questions are raised through the London Assembly Transport Committee.

A recent Transport Committee meeting into the performance of Dial-a-Ride's service saw Caroline Pidgeon and other Transport Committee members questioning representatives from TfL, Unite and Transport for All, before giving the floor to around 30 Dial-a-Ride users who attended the meeting.

An unfair bill for South Londoners

Liberal Democrat Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon has persuaded Boris Johnson to support the campaign to ensure that the massive costs of the inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes are shared more fairly. At present the bill of over £4 million is falling on the council taxpayers of the London Boroughs of Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark.

Questioned by Caroline Pidgeon the Mayor accepted that the costs of the inquest were exceptional and that it was unfair that the costs of the inquest are being paid by just four London Boroughs.

Mayor hits Freedom Pass holders with double whammy

Pensioners and eligible disabled people in London were today hit by a double whammy as the Mayor of London Boris Johnson revealed that not only would their 24-hour Freedom Pass not be able to be used on Network Rail trains before 9.30am, despite this being a key election promise, but that the London Boroughs face paying out millions of pounds to fund Mayor Boris Johnson's 24-hour commitment.

Mayor must seek private funding

Caroline Pidgeon AM, London Assembly Liberal Democrat lead on transport, commenting on Transport for London's Ten Year Business Plan, published today, said:

“It is staggering that schemes such as the Cross River Tram, the Croydon Tramlink Extension, East London Transit, Greenwich Waterfront Transit and plans for an Oxford street tram appear to have been scrapped with nothing in their place apart from, perhaps, a few more polluting diesel buses.

Action on dial-a-ride services

Over many months, Lib Dem Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon received serious complaints about the dial-a-ride services provided by Transport for London. On 3rd September Caroline met Paul Blackwell, General Manager of dial-a-ride, to discuss the many issues that had been raised by dial-a-ride users and to hear about what TfL are doing and have put in place to improve the service.

“It is quite clear that the centralisation of the service has caused huge problems, particularly in certain parts of London, and that their computer system has had real problems. I am trying to get to the bottom of how much the computer system has cost Londoners” commented Caroline.

“I have requested further statistics, going back as far as possible, so that I can really get a clear picture of the maximum length of time users are having to hold on the telephone before speaking to someone. We also need to know how often dial-a-ride are unable to provide a service.

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