Transport a very real election issue

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Published: 1 April, 2010

Fed up with Labour and angry with how London’s Conservative mayor has messed up works and now proposes deep cuts? Liberal Democrat Ed Fordham says there is an alternative…

So having suffered the considerable inconvenience of the Jubilee line weekend closure farce, the joke of the Metropolitan line sometimes being down at the same time, the current closure blockade of the Overground North London line – now we have the impending closure of the Northern line too.
The Northern line closure is estimated to take 82 weekends!
This has now gone beyond a farce! 
But now there is more.
Mayor of London  Boris Johnson is putting forward a plan that will close a whole series of ticket offices for vast tracks of the week and weekends – basically there will be a massive cut in the number of staff to help passengers and answer queries.
All of this in some of the very stations that are the busiest in London – Camden Town, West Hampstead and Hampstead – not only are they busy with residents, but they are also key visitor destinations for people from across the world.
Mayor Johnson made a song and dance about this and yet is closing the very offices that will help Olympic visitors at the time when they will be busiest.
It would be madness on its own merits but the reality is also a disgrace. These are strong words but it’s true.
As a mayoral candidate Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party were very specific. 
They issued a transport manifesto and the fourth pledge was incredibly detailed.
“Making transport more convenient by halting the proposed Tube ticket office closures and ensuring there is always a manned ticket office at every station.” (from the Tory manifesto, Getting Londoners Moving).
Now we find it was a direct deception. 
The closures are going ahead despite the pledge.
This has several effects:
• service at stations will become worse on the London transport system;
• travel later at night will become unsafe and more worrying for passengers;
• those needing assistance will find there is less help and the busiest stations will see queues getting longer;
• confidence in all politicians will drop even further as a result of the broken pledge.
The Conservatives and Boris Johnson are being duplicitous saying one thing to get votes and doing another when in office.
For the first time in decades transport is a very real election issue.
With just 474 votes separating the Liberal Democrats here in Hampstead and Kilburn from Labour and with a very real prospect of Labour losing here people can cast their vote on this critical issue.
Fed up with Gordon Brown and the Labour government, angry with the way the Tory Mayor of London has messed up the transport works and now proposes deep cuts?
Then vote for an alternative – and what would be different with the Liberal Democrats:
• the Jubilee line was mishandled with poor communications, that lesson should be learnt for the Northern line closures;
• the constant closure at weekends should not be pursued – instead we should have the Madrid model of a four- to five-week block closure to get the works done in one fell swoop;
• the mayor should stick to his promise of keeping ticket offices open;
• real investment in transport through public bonds and other proven routes would be better than the disastrous PPP (public private partnership) scheme brought in by Glenda Jackson.
Many of these issues have even been put forward by the transport committee at City Hall and yet Boris Johnson has been curiously deaf to their recommendations.
But the truth is mayor Johnson made a pledge and has broken it. 
He and the Conservative Party deserve to be held to account.
Those votes in this general election could well prove decisive in ensuring that Labour lose and the Liberal Democrats win here in Hampstead and Kilburn.
Only time will tell.