TfL’s Dirty Little Secret... 160 Ventilation Shafts In London, SpewingOut Toxic Fumes From The Tube System. By James Thomas

How many Taxi drivers have died over the years from pollution related conditions, who used Warwick Avenue Rank/Shelter?

As air quality and pollution have become fashionable to bleat about, TfL and certain London councils have used this propaganda to disguise their true agendas, which has seen London bought to a virtual gridlocked full stop.

Over the last year to 18 months, we as a trade have been under constant attack from many central London Councils and also from our own regulator. Our working road space has been reduced dramatically...the places where we can legally pick up and drop off are disappearing at a rate of knots, affecting the livelihoods of many drivers.

There are a few unfortunate Cabbies that, owing to the way the trade has been under constant attacked, have fallen on very hard times and it’s more than you would think. Drivers have fallen behind with mortgages, some have lost their homes, their marriages have broken down and they have lost their families. Many drivers are living day to day in a knife edge. 

The night rest stop where I go for a cup of tea and a chat, has a number of cabbies who can regularly be seen bedding down for the night in the car park. But with new bylaws seeing councils issuing penalty charge notices for stationary vehicles left with their engines idling, as drivers heat their vehicles over night, how long before we find the first cabby worried about extra bills, seriously ill or even frozen to death?

Insisting Taxis turn off their engines while stationary is not going to solve any pollution issues as many drivers could be put off ranking in the cold, and may well continue circulating, pumping out even more alleged toxic fumes, therefore adding to any perceived pollution problem.

The irony is, councils own guidelines say that employees should not work in temperatures below 13° centigrade. 

Again ironically, Westminster will ticket drivers with engines running on Warwick Avenue rank, yet TfL are allowed to pump out toxic fumes from the tube using the ventilation shaft by the side of the rank.

But, it’s not just Warwick Avenue, there are 160 tube ventilation shafts scattered around central London 

This is the vent for the tube on City Road.

When you did the first run in the blue book, did you ever notice this beautiful feature in the middle of Gibson Square...yes, it’s another ventilation shaft for the tube spewing out toxic air.

This feature above is a secret tunnel that leads from Park Crescent to the other side of the Marylebone Road, into Park Square... but another secret, it’s also another example of a toxic ventilation shaft.  

Meanwhile back to the 'Mean Streets'.

New traffic systems, mainly in Camden, Islington and City of London, widely used side roads (lovingly referred to as rat-runs) have been blocked, causing drivers to take longer routes around divisions adding extra mileage, making passenger trips more expensive, and again producing more exhaust gasses... it just doesn’t make sense. (Unless of course you follow the money!)

The idea of turning London into a carbon copy of Amsterdam or Copenhagen is causing massive congestion and it doesn’t take a genius to see what the problem is.... it just doesn’t work.

It also doesn’t take a genius to work out why they are intent on pushing ahead with these ridiculous schemes. Again....follow the money!

Just investigate who is behind the sudden upsurge in cargo bikes!!!

Have no doubt, there is only one reason why TfL and certain local councils are pushing this agenda forward, and it’s got nothing to do with safety for walking and cycling or air quality. For instance how many BBC staff or workers and customers at Westfield, want to walk west along the A40 to Park Royal and beyond....but just in case they do, TfL have built them a walking and cycling lane along this major heavily used clearway with plans to go all the way to Uxbridge, reducing the number of lanes in places from three to two....and again causing extra unnecessary congestion and pollution. 

The Next Big Thing!

It’s all about the future instillation of a Carbon Tax, to bolster their failing budgets.

Ken Livingston showed them the way, his philosophy was "before you can charge for congestion you have to cause it!"...and he did just that.

TfL and Khan are taking this a step further with their updated philosophy of "before you can charge for pollution, you have to creat it"....and that’s exactly what they are doing.

A lovely monument in Paternoster Square?
Nope, it’s another ventilation shaft from the tube

There seems to be a few disbelievers who are saying the tube is electric so how can that pollute with toxic air....if this is your argument, the link below is for you 

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jan/09/london-underground-air-pollution-report-concerns-northern-line-particulates

On the 17th October 2011 Robin Taylor made an FOI request asking TfL for the location of all the 160 ventilation shafts. This request was refused by TfL. 

TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT :

The Taxi Trade has become a pawn in this game of aggressive persecution. Over the next year we will see more road space taken away, less places where we can’t pick up or set down, more 'Bus Gates' implemented and more exclusion from existing bus lanes all CCTV’d up, and raring to go, issuing fines left right and centre.

Doing nothing, isn’t a solution, if you are not part of the solution, then you are part of the problem.

We are about to go into a "Winter Of Discontent".

Are you going to sit back and wait and see... or are you going to join your colleagues with militant actions?

Watch this space for updates!