𝐓𝐀𝐗𝐈 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐄 𝐇𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐓𝐟𝐋 𝐃𝐎𝐔𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐌𝐌𝐘 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐈𝐓 𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐋𝐃𝐍’𝐓 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐄.

TfL have announce (as I’m sure you’ve all seen) that the Bishopsgate corridor restrictions are now to be made permanent. 

But as Jimmy Cricket used to say…."Come here…there’s more" 

TfL have also announced that after a consultation (that wasn’t advertised fully and had only 3,171 responses….mainly from members of the cycling lobby, many of whom don’t even live in Greater London) they are making the temporary cycle lane along the west side of Park Lane, permanent. 

To add insult to injury, TfLTPH are now also complaining that Liverpool Street station rank, is being under serviced by Licensed Taxis. 

Having been proved right about almost every caveat of Project Horizon, when questioned by David Kurten, Khan at Mayors Question Time said "it didn’t exist"…and when it was pointed out that TfL actually had a director of Project Horizon in the shape of Gareth Powell, quickly change to "it’s nothing to do with the Taxi trade, it's to make TfL more economically stable. 

We are now going into the final phase of Horizon, where PH drivers will be offered (at a price) differing standards. 

Make no mistake…TfL will soon be bringing in these Gold, Silver and Bronze PH licenses. 

I know what you’re thinking, this will never happen….but you all said that 14 years ago when I first uncovered TfL's 'Project Horizon' plans after receiving an email from TfLTPH, with an un-redacted email train explaining Horizon in detail. The sender tried desperately to delete the email but it was too late as I’d already opened and read it.

First on the agenda was to greatly increase the number of PH licences….I was told by all orgs, unions and most of the drivers this would never happen because they would introduce a limit on licenses. 

Well, that’s one nil to me.

Secondly, TfL intended to dramatically cut the number of Taxi drivers in London (the actual wording use was cut in half) and increase the hardship in completing the Knowledge to hold back any new blood coming through….again when I made this public, I was ridiculed and called a liar, a doom and gloomer, and because I kept on about this, was drummed out of a certain Union branch, of which I was a founding member off. 

Well that’s two nil to me. 

I then went on to publicly state, access to much of London’s streets would be lost to the trade…..again ridicule and disbelief from the trade. 

Three nil to me. 

Amazingly, when I uncovered the signage that the DOT had authorised for TfL concerning 'E-Taxi only' use of bus lanes….the LTDA ran a piece in Taxi calling me a rumour monger and purveyor of fake news, insinuated that I’d made it up and that the signage in question was intended for Manchester. 

Plus to get their story across, they actually cropped TfL's name from the images on their article. I sent the DOT an FOI request and they confirmed the signage on their website were actually authorised for TfL. 

Four nil to me

I’m still waiting for an apology from the LTDA over their published lie (but I’m not holding my breath). Why would our largest trade body tamper with the images, to protect TfL's plan against full Taxi access?

At the beginning of the Horizon expose', I spoke about the propose Gold Silver and Bronze standards for PH drivers, with Gold standard given access to certain ranks…and everyone laughed… dismissing my warnings as the ranting of a looney. 

But don’t forget, Ken Livingston once famously said, "before you can charge for congestion, you have to create it"… and that’s exactly what he did. And that exactly what TfL are doing now.

TfL will be creating barriers to certain ranks with limited access, unnecessary road works, impossible one way systems and drawn out traffic light phasing…and after the outpouring of complaints that will surely follow, will suddenly come up with the idea of shared ranks to solve the problem they’ve created. 

Their announce will probably say "because of current problems with the service of certain ranks, PH gold service licence holders (who have WAVs) will be permitted to pick up from said ranks".

This has been on their back burner for over 14 years.

We are now seeing the start of the 'barriers to service,' that will (if not immediately addressed) lead to shared ranks. 

The trouble is, our trade representatives have no chance of stopping this as at present, as they are too fragmented and continue to fight each other, rather than fight the real enemy. Plus the apathy amongst drivers is at an unbelievable level. 

TfL know they have no resistance to face and can do virtually whatever they like, after the 2018/19 trade demonstrations (led by the ITA) that weren’t supported fully by the whole trade. Just a couple of hundred concerned drivers actively fighting, while 98% of the trade just worked round the protests. Plus our largest org actually sent an email to Mike Brown apologising for the action of protester, referring to them as "loonies". 

You can call me a gloom and doomer all you like, you can call me a liar and a looney…. But the fact is, I haven’t been proved wrong once since day one, and many have tried.

Five nil will be a final score ⬛️