Another great train robbery (From News Shopper)

Another great train robbery

11:48am Tuesday 20th January 2004 in Letters

Now a single fare on the Tube in central London has gone up to £2, our capital city has the most expensive underground service in Europe, if it did not already, as well as just about the worst.

No wonder visitors stagger around in disbelief wondering why we Londoners put up with it.

This latest Labour train robbery has coincided with Ken Livingstone getting back into bed with Tony Blair so much for all those people duped into voting for "an independent voice" for mayor.

Perhaps these two gentlemen would now like to swallow their pride and learn a few lessons from our partners in continental Europe when it comes to giving public transport the degree of attention it needs.

Take Paris, for example. The Paris Metro has a more dense underground network, carries more passengers, and a single ticket costs less than half the London price.

Sustained investment, modernisation and maintenance over a long period of time have contributed to an enviable and reliable system.

In Berlin, the trains run for longer (on some routes all night at weekends). The system is efficient and well integrated with overground train, bus and tram routes.

Here, on both the Tube and overground trains, increasingly it is a story of delays, horrendous overcrowding and reduced off-peak services.

London is facing a transport catastrophe, costing business hundreds of millions of pounds a year and individuals incalculable stress, as well as damaging tourism.

Labour has let London down on transport, just as the Tories let public transport rot when they were in power. Every Londoner, directly or indirectly, is suffering as a result.

Jonathan Fryer Euro-parliamentary candidate for London Liberal Democrats