Taxi Trade’s Weak Representation, Held In Complete Contempt By Both TfL And The City of London.

After hearing from our largest representative group, that Taxis will be allowed to use the Bus Gates at Shorter Street and Bywater Street into Great Tower Street...we are then told we will have to wait three months for Shorter Street to actually be implemented and that Bywater into Great Tower hasn’t yet been confirmed. 

Taxi Leaks asks the question:

How is it that TfL and the City of London, can carry out a NO left turn over one weekend including the Kerb work.

Yet we are being told that it’s going to take three months to put in two Taxi stickers on signs at Shorter st and get confirmation for Great Tower Street ?? 

No kerb work needed as buses are already using  this route!!

Is this CoL’s way of hoping not to receive any protest over the restriction of trade with Beech Street???

Again this shows the contempt the London Taxi trade (the best taxi service in the world) is held in by our regulator and the Corporation of the City of London. It also shows just how weak our representation actually is ... and is a major part of the reason that over half the Taxi trade do not subscribe to any organisation or Union. 
Why would you pay someone to continually wait and see and do nothing????

A Restriction Of Trade...Or Just Held In Contempt???

We saw earlier this week the ridiculous route suggested by the City of London pertaining to a journey from the Thames Link Station Ludgate Hill to Blackfriars Station on New Bridge Street.  Forward Fleet Street, right Fetter Lane Forward New Fetter Lane, comply with Holborn Circus and Forward Charterhouse Street, right  Farrendon Street... can you imagine the stick drivers will get from their passengers. 

If that wasn’t bad enough, TfL in their infinite wisdom have come up and contributed an alternative route. 

Forward Fleet Street, forward the Strand, left Waterloo Bridge, left Stanford Street, left Blackfriars Road, Forward Blackfriars Bridge.... comply with a dangerous U-turn to drop at the station entrance !!!!

As professional Taxi drivers we will obviously ignore both these ridiculous round the houses routes and just turn right onto Farringdon Street, U-turn against their flow of traffic and cross the junction on down to the station. 

Drivers and passengers should never have been put in this situation and you can be sure that (out of spite) no U-turn signage will probably appear (overnight) months before the announced new signage in Shorter Street appears....I was going to say you can Bank on it but that word is still a soar point with trade representation.