Latest news with #TransportForLondon
Daily Mail
10 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Tube drivers threatening to strike if 'bosses refuse to pay them £76,000 a year'
London Underground drivers are threatening to go on strike if 'bosses refuse to pay them £76,000 a year'. The RMT trade union is allegedly urging members to take action if Transport for London (TfL) does not offer them a pay rise of 4.5 per cent. If accepted, salaries for drivers would raise to £76,127, more than twice the average annual salary. Currently, most tube drivers make around £72,000 a year, which is already close to double the average salary of £37,500, according to the Office for National Statistics. TfL has reportedly offered Tube drivers a 2.8 per cent pay rise. In a letter seen by The Telegraph, the union has called for a pay rise that 'protects members from the real cost of living '. Keith Prince, the London Assembly transport spokesman said: 'It's never enough - Khan and the Labour government bunged billions at union barons without any strings attached, and for nothing. 'Now drivers are looking for a salary more than double what the average Brit earns.' Last year Sir Sadiq Khan warded off the threat of strikes by promising train drivers a four-day working week and a 4.6 per cent pay rise. Workers would do a regular 34-hour week across four days, including a 30-minute paid break, instead of 38.5 hours. Drivers would only work a fifth day of the week once every three months, to account for some of the time being trimmed. However, this work would be training rather than operating trains. The ASLEF union accepted the new terms in a vote, but the RMT union is still yet to agree. Aslef announced in April that 70 per cent of members had voted to endorse the new terms in a ballot, with 80 per cent turnout. Finn Brennan, Aslef's full-time organiser on London Underground, said: 'Despite a campaign of disinformation and distortion by those who want to prevent drivers having improved working conditions and a better work-life balance, our members have voted in favour of the proposal by 70 per cent on an 80 per cent turnout in an independently audited referendum. 'As a majority of members have voted in favour of the proposal, we will now be writing to the company to inform them of the result and to arrange a meeting to start detailed discussions on implementation.' Currently drivers take unpaid breaks within their hours, and 'bank' one hour a week that is given back as time in lieu later. Supporters of the new arrangement say it is hard for TfL to dictate how long unpaid breaks should last. A TfL spokesperson said: 'We look forward to reaching a fair and affordable agreement for our colleagues.' The RMT union has been contacted for comment.
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Moment commuter who dodged fares for eight months is confronted by investigaros after racking up £1,650 in unpaid tickets
This is the moment an Elizabeth line fare dodger was caught in the act by ticket inspectors after evading £1,650 in ticket costs over nearly 250 journeys. The passenger who regularly commuted from Harold Wood or Romford to Stratford was confronted with 35 pages of evidence dating back eight months. One of his common methods while travelling through East London was to pay for a fare in Zones 2 to 3 only, rather than the full fare for his journey in Zones 2 to 6. Stratford station is in Zone 2, while Harold Wood and Romford are both in Zone 6. There is a big price difference between travelling in Z2-3 instead of Z2-6 - at £33.50 against £55.90 for a weekly travelcard, or £128.70 and £214.70 for a monthly pass. The annual cost is £1,340 against £2,236. When paying for a single journey, the cost is £2.10 peak or £2.00 off-peak for Z2-3; and £3.20 peak or £2.70 off-peak for Z2-6. On the morning of the sting, the passenger was caught not touching in on the card reader when starting his journey in an apparent attempt to avoid paying entirely. Camera crews captured the moment he was eventually stopped in the latest episode of Channel 5's Fare Evaders: At War With The Law which airs next Monday at 9pm. The clip begins with Transport for London (TfL) revenue protection officers revealing their plan to confront the suspect at Harold Wood station at 5.30am. They have been tracking the suspect after a rule break on an Oyster card was picked up by TfL's Irregular Travel Analysis Platform (Itap), a detection system that identifies fare evasion and revenue loss from patterns in ticketing and passenger data. The investigators say they have totted up £1,651 in unpaid fares across 245 journeys that he had not paid full price for – and wait for him to arrive at the station. After one of them spots him getting off a bus outside the station, they see him walk through the ticket gates and intercept him on a bridge between the platforms. As he approaches, the investigator asks: 'Hi buddy, just need to do a ticket check on your Oyster card.' The man replies: 'I don't have Oyster card.' But the investigator replies: 'You do - so what did you use to come here?' The man insists he used a 'bank card.' However, the investigator says: 'No, I've got a case against you, I see you coming through with the coat all the time. What Oyster card do you use?' The passenger continues to insist he uses a bank card, but he is told: 'You do. So where are you travelling to today?' A passenger is spoken to by investigators at London Waterloo station after only buying a ticket from Vauxhall, as he is finally caught after evading nearly £20,000 in ticket costs When the man replies 'Stratford', the investigator says: 'I know you go to Stratford. On this Oyster card number you go to Stratford and come back all the time. Have you got any ID with you please?' The traveller gives them his name and address but not his Oyster card, claiming: 'I don't have it anymore.' The investigator then tells him: 'I know where you buy your ticket. I know everything about the Oyster card. I will show you all the journeys in a moment.' And the investigator's colleague adds: 'Look, listen, it's not going to go away. The other option is we get the police down and they can come and deal with it, alright? 'So we know you've got an Oyster card, you might as well show us the Oyster card. At the moment you're being obstructive, OK?' After being taken to a private room for questioning, the man eventually hands over the Oyster card and is told he could be taken to court for the offences. The man was then allowed to go on his way but told he would continue to be tracked on the Oyster card – and the case was passed to TfL's prosecution team. MailOnline has already covered a series of incidents featured in the documentary, which comes after Robert Jenrick highlighted fare dodging at Stratford last month. A fare dodger is finally caught at Preston Road station in North West London after he avoided paying for more than 200 journeys using a concession card registered to a female relative The shadow justice secretary posted a video on social media in which he confronted people who forced their way through the ticket barriers at the station. Separately, a report released on June 4 found fare evasion is becoming 'normalised', with train staff telling the inquiry that they are struggling to cope with 'aggressive' passengers who refuse to buy tickets. Travellers are using 'a range of techniques to persistently' underpay or avoid paying and see it as a 'victimless crime', according to the Office of Road and Rail (ORR). Meanwhile TikTok influencers are brazenly showing Tube passengers how to illegally travel for free by 'bumping' through the station ticket barriers.
Telegraph
4 days ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
What Sadiq Khan can learn from the city that crushed fare evasion
When Laura first moved to Washington three years ago, she thought the bus was a complimentary service paid for by the city. 'I assumed it was free when I took it the first couple of times because nobody was paying,' says the researcher. 'Everyone just walked straight on.' Across the world, fare evasion on public transport has exploded in the wake of the pandemic. It has left public transport companies reeling from hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues. Now, Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) – which manages the US capital's bus and subway systems – is at the forefront of a crackdown. It has had huge success in tackling fare evasion on its Metrorail network, and is now targeting the buses. Randy Clarke, the WMATA general manager, says the network has cut subway fare-dodging by as much as 85pc from its peak. Meanwhile, on the other side of the atlantic, Transport for London (TfL) haemorrhages £130m to fare dodgers. Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, would do well to take note of Clarke's tactics. Almost one in 20 Tube passengers didn't pay last year. Fare dodging has become a political flashpoint in London. Last month, Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary, filmed himself confronting fare dodgers pushing through the barriers at Stratford station in east London. He posted the video on X with the message: 'Sadiq Khan is driving a proud city into the ground. Lawbreaking is out of control. He's not acting. So, I did.' But what can Sir Sadiq learn from Washington? Across all US transport networks, the rate of fare evasion has nearly quadrupled since the pandemic. In 2018, it was 2pc. Last year, it was 7pc – according to the American Public Transportation Association (APTA). But 7pc sounds quaint on large city networks. Clarke may have had success on Washington's subway network but WMATA data last autumn showed around 70pc of riders on DC buses were travelling without paying. Paul Skoutelas, APTA's president, blames a psychological shift during lockdown. Many transport systems stopped charging fares to reduce contact between people, or to boost passenger numbers. 'People are thinking, 'We didn't pay then, do we really need to pay now?'' says Skoutelas. In Washington, Metrobus fares were waived between March 2020 and January 2021. For many riders, the habit stuck. By 2022, WMATA was losing $40m (£29.5m) a year in revenues to fare evaders across Metrorail and Metrobus. Benjamin Lynn, of the Amalgamated Transit Union (AMT), says of the rail network: 'You'd see people climb over the fare gates on a daily basis.' Three steps to tackle fare evasions When Clarke joined WMATA as general manager in the summer of 2022, he launched a three-pronged attack to tackle fare evasion on DC's Metrorail network. First, he tightened the rules to introduce new penalties for failing to pay. Secondly, he stepped up police patrols to catch offenders. And thirdly, and most crucially, WMATA introduced new gates that are much harder to skip through. At the end of 2018, Washington had decriminalised fare evasion, meaning perpetrators only faced fines. Then during the pandemic, it largely stopped policing the policy. Fare evasion enforcements plunged from more than 15,000 in 2017 to just 297 in 2021. WMATA launched a new system of penalties shortly after Clarke joined in 2022, with $50 civil fines for fare evasion in Washington. In the states of Virginia and Maryland, which are also part of the transport network, fare evasion is a criminal offence with a fine of up to $100. But officers had limited means to impose these fines until District of Columbia council officials passed the Secure DC Bill in March 2024, which handed police greater powers to force offenders to provide their correct names and addresses. Anyone failing to comply can face an additional $100 fine. At the same time, Clarke increased police patrols by 70pc. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of citations and summonses issued by the Metro Transit Police surged by 136pc to hit nearly 16,000 – the highest total on record in at least a decade. In the first four months of 2025, citations were up by a further 45pc. WMATA also began rolling out new fare gates, with installations completed across all 98 stations last year. The old gates were only 28 inches high and consisted of small retracting fan-shaped gates. They were easy to push through, crawl under or climb over. The new gates are almost twice the height (55 inches) and consist of L-shaped polycarbonate door-panels with robust, motorised hinges and only a 10-inch gap underneath. Clarke's personal leadership style has also helped. One of his first steps after becoming general manager was to get remote workers back into the office. 'A lot of people didn't love that at the time,' he told the Statecraft politics podcast this month. However, he said the shift in policy helped get results. 'I think that is actually one of the reasons we produced so much.' The impact has been undeniable. The network has clawed back tens of millions of dollars in lost revenue and in two years the crime rate across WMATA has fallen by 65pc to a seven-year low. 'Not everyone who fare-evades commits crimes, but almost universally, everyone who commits serious crimes fare-evades,' Clarke told Statecraft. 'Not many people are going to tap in and then do armed robbery.' The Metrobus, however, is still something of a Wild West. This is Clarke's new frontier. At the end of last year, WMATA launched a new effort with transit police, plain-clothes officers and video monitoring. Digital signs on the front of Metrobuses now say 'fare required'. 'You would think, 'Geez, that's very simple.' But I think it needs to be said,' says Skoutelas. WMATA is at the aggressive forefront of a national effort to claw back lost revenues. City networks including New York, San Francisco and Seattle have all made major inroads on fare evasion with similar tactics. In London, TfL is on a campaign too, with a target to cut fare evasion from 3.4pc – or 4.7pc on the Tube – to 1.5pc by 2030. Sir Sadiq has taken similar efforts to tighten the rules, increasing fines for fare evasion from £80 to £100 in March last year. In April, TfL announced it was expanding its team of dedicated investigators to crack down on prolific repeat offenders. But there has so far been no word on improving fare gates. In response to a Freedom of Information request on the topic in March this year, TfL said: 'There are currently no plans to replace the ticket barriers.' It seems Sir Sadiq is missing a vital trick. Ultimately, the key to fixing the problem is psychological, Clarke believes. 'There is some truth to a larger societal idea. People want to see other people follow rules, and the more that people follow rules, the more people watching them follow rules,' he told Statecraft. 'There's a societal group-think at play.'
BBC News
4 days ago
- Automotive
- BBC News
Drivers use Woolwich Ferry to cross Thames and avoid tunnel tolls
Hundreds of drivers are using a free ferry to cross the River Thames instead of using two tunnels which now have a result, drivers have described lengthy queues and a surge in the number of lorries using the Woolwich Ferry after tolls began on 7 April for the Silvertown and Blackwall have said although the ferry is like a "cargo ship" as lorries use a lot of space, it was still preferable to the "too high" £8 daily tunnel for London (TfL) has said it is monitoring the situation closely. Its figures show an additional 1,800 vehicles use the boat-based crossing every day since tolls came in. The Mayor of London has been asked for comment. The combined Silvertown and Blackwall corridor averages 88,000 vehicles across both directions on a typical weekday, TfL is a reduction from the 90,000 to 100,000 vehicles that were using the Blackwall Tunnel on an average day before the Silvertown opening, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said. Motorists are charged to use either the Blackwall or Silvertown tunnels. The peak charge for cars is £4 for one living in east London boroughs north of the river get a 50% discount. Those south of the Thames do 3,500 residents are currently registered for this discount. Letisha Hyde, who lives in Thamesmead, used to regularly use the ferry to get to work and get her children to school and nursery. Now she chooses to use the tunnels because of how busy the ferry has said: "I was expecting the ferry to be a lot busier since the tunnel charges and it definitely is. However, there is always a two boat service, which runs until later now."Congestion at peak times wouldn't be as bad if the lorries weren't taking up so much space - it's like a cargo ship at times. "Since the tunnel the amount of lorries in the morning has tripled and one lorry alone takes up three to four cars on the ferry."Having to use the tunnel has "put a lot of pressure" on Ms Hyde's said: "Eight pounds a day adds up and I've had to budget elsewhere to make sure I'm able to afford essentials. The extra petrol I'm having to use also has been a strain." Woolwich resident Dev Der uses the ferry to get to his office in Canary Wharf and said he would continue to do so because he felt the £8 daily toll on both tunnels was "too high". Greenwich resident Loong Chung said: "I use [the ferry] when the queue isn't too bad and I am willing to queue if it's less than 30 minutes' wait."Eight pounds for a return trip is just too much. If I'm not in a rush, I will try to use the ferry or the Rotherhithe Tunnel."Tony Silver, also from Greenwich, said using the Blackwall Tunnel was now "a pleasure" with less traffic. It would take an act of parliament for TfL to charge ferry users, as the service has been free since Lord, TfL commissioner, said: "Our staff are working hard to manage the additional customers and keep the ferry on schedule, and we are monitoring this situation closely with the expectation it will settle in the coming months as new travel patterns are established."
Daily Mail
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Moment Tube driver is caught KNITTING and watching videos on his phone while driving commuters
An easy-going tube driver was caught knitting and watching videos on his phone as he drove commuters around one of the busiest transport networks in the world. Striking footage shows the London Underground operative hard at work on a lion-themed garment as he pulls slowly out of Hendon Central Station in February 2025. The man's phone is also positioned comfortably in front of him so he can watch videos at his leisure. A witness who filmed the spectacle - which took place on a Northern Line train - commented disapprovingly, 'look at him... watching TV, pressing a couple of buttons'. He went on to reference the money the driver earns each year and claimed he can go on strike 'whenever he wants'. The witness later recalled: 'I was so surprised. 'I didn't expect to see someone meant to be at work being so casual about the job. 'Especially because at the time, there were tube strikes going on so it felt mad they were complaining about the job then relaxing on it. The man's phone is also positioned comfortably in front of him so he can watch videos at his leisure 'And, although I don't know how automatic the system is for the tubes, I remember thinking that this person has the passengers' lives in their hands. 'It felt crazy that this driver wouldn't take that more seriously.' Transport for London (TfL) has confirmed the driver in the video was sacked from his job. A spokesman said: 'This video was made earlier in the year. 'We carried out a full investigation and the person involved no longer works at TfL.' Many social media users have taken to TikTok to share their thoughts on the video. One person said: 'He's risking his career for a bit of TV.' Another added: 'The driver shouldn't be doing that, they should be focussing - that's dangerous.' But a number of people offered their support to the tube worker amid the criticism. Someone said: 'What do you want him to be doing? Steering?'
