After pressing Thames Water to pay compensation for the extreme transport disruption caused by a burst pipe on 1st August, Caroline Pidgeon commented:
Thames Water should stop playing legal games and accept that they were responsible for the havoc faced by thousands of passengers.
After her question to Boris Johnson revealed that TfL has had nearly £300,000 worth of metal stolen in the last three years, Caroline Pidgeon told the Evening Standard:
The increasing amount of metal theft from TfL property is a bill Londoners can least afford. This theft is also inconveniencing bus users and potentially creating safety risks on the tube.
This is far from a victimless crime and it must be tackled.
Speaking to the Evening Standard about the Mayor's plans for fare evasion fines to rise to £80, Caroline Pidgeon backed the plans but commented:
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.
New evidence has come to light of Greenwich Council’s appalling record in communicating with the 1.5 million people who have used Greenwich and Woolwich Foot Tunnels every year.
After extended delays in re-opening both the tunnels, along with repeated incidents of inaccurate information being provided, Greenwich Council is now claiming via their website that Woolwich Foot Tunnel will finally re-open to the public by the end of this month. However, at the same time, at the entrance to the Woolwich Foot Tunnel there are public signs saying the foot tunnel will only re-open in Spring 2012.
A new name for Blackfriars Station would provide exciting new opportunities for the Bankside area, predict Caroline Pidgeon and Simon Hughes.
Commenting at the start of a Network Rail consultation for a potential new name to Blackfriars station, Caroline said:
“It is time to put Bankside on the map! Including Bankside in the station’s name would really help attract far more tourists and visitors to the area and lead to more money being spent locally. It would be good for businesses and good for local residents."
After years of disruption on the Jubilee Line new evidence has come to light revealing some of the real costs of the years of dragged out weekend closures.
Following extensive freedom of information requests Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, has now discovered that the costs of the weekend closures since April 2007 on the Jubilee Line include:
Commenting on these immense figures Caroline Pidgeon said:
“A year ago the Mayor and Transport for London admitted that the upgrade programme on the Jubilee Line would slip once again. After years of disruption to passengers, communities and businesses they announced a further year of weekend closures which has only just finished.
With the final East London Line (ELL extension) coming under budget, Caroline Pidgeon has called for the cancelled station at Surrey Canal to be reinstated.
A recent Transport for London report has revealed that "phase two" work on the line is expected to come in more than £4 million under budget.
The new section of the line from Surrey Quays will run through Peckham to Clapham Junction from late 2012. It will connect to the main section of the line which already runs from north London, through Southwark, Lewisham and onto Croydon.
Thames Water bosses have been severely criticised by Caroline Pidgeon following a water burst that paralysed rail travel across a large swathe of the South-East on 1st August.
An estimated 80,000 pasengers faced hours of chaos and delays after a Thames Water pipe triggered a landslide that blocked a key commuter route in and out of Victoria.
Caroline has now written to Thames Water asking them to introduce some form of compensation for the thousands of passengers that faced what many people have described as nightmare journeys.
Caroline Pidgeon, Leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group, commenting on today’s announcement that London's cycle hire scheme will expand into west and south-west London over the next two years, said:
“Everyone wants to see the cycle hire scheme expanded. The scheme’s expansion is obviously great news for the areas of London that will now be covered, but the Mayor should have today told Londoners which other areas will get the cycle hire scheme as it is expanded in future years.
“The Mayor also needs to answer a key question - why has the sponsorship arrangement with Barclays has been so casually extended for a further three years, instead of being put out to a competitive tender when the five year contract expires in 2015?
In a Metropolitan Police Authority meeting yesterday, Paul Stephenson admitted that - as revealed by Liberal Democrats through Freedom of Information enquiries - senior members of the Met accepted lunches and dinners from News International executives, including the former executive editor of the paper, who is under arrest on suspicion of phone hacking.
Caroline Pidgeon told ITV's London Tonight:
It seems extraordinary to me that senior members of the Met would have lunches and dinners with newspapers.
They give their reasons why it is "reasonable" - I don't think it is, and I don't think it looks it to the public.
You can see ITV's video report here - and also read the BBC's coverage here.
