Event Organisers Update

The following letter was sent to Ken Livingstone in early May.

8 May 2007

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MAYOR OF LONDON

Dear Ken Livingstone

Is your Transport for London (TFL) organisation working for or against the community it is supposed to serve?

I ask this because of my recent bizarre and hopefully isolated experience with TFL, which I am publishing in the public interest.

On Thursday 3 May I was riding on a number 73 bus travelling west from Kings Cross when a representative of TFL boarded to check tickets, at around 11.10 am. I produced my Day Travelcard, purchased for £12.55 from Biggleswade railway station, which allows unlimited use of London’s buses and underground, as well as my Network Card, which allows me to buy these tickets at a discounted price and which he took from me. Copies of these are enclosed.
The TFL representative then asked to see a photocard and I produced the one originally issued by the rail company to back my Network Card. The TFL representative then told me the photocard was invalid and that I could only have my Network Card back if I paid him £2.

I refused and after a lot more argument, during which the bus travelled past my destination (Companies House in Gower Street) the TFL representative gave me a business card for TFL’s amusingly titled Transport Policing and Enforcement Directorate and with a Revenue Protection Official Number on it of 3103 (copy enclosed). He told me that he was acting in accordance with TFL policy towards passengers and said that I should pay him the £2 and then “appeal it”.

Again I refused, and he refused to return my Network Card so I decided to stay on the bus to retrieve it and see this one through, at my own cost in time and in the public interest.

When the bus reached the Bond Street area of Oxford Street the TFL representative 3103 spotted a Metropolitan Police van travelling in the opposite direction and ordered the bus driver to flash his lights to stop it, indicating an emergency. He also ordered the driver to stop the bus and then told all the other passengers that it was being taken out of service and ordered them off.

Two police constables then arrived and I got off the bus to talk to them, along with 3103, who produced my Network Card to show the police thus giving me an opportunity to, rightly, snatch it back from him.

The Metropolitan Police constables showed, I felt, tact and commendable patience in dealing with the situation, explaining to 3103 at length that it was a civil, not criminal matter. I explained, and this was accepted by the police, that if TFL really thought I was trying to defraud them out of £2 then I could simply supply them my name and
address for future action on their part, possibly in court. I did this for one of the police constables who took it down on a piece of their notepaper (copy enclosed) and
added their own names and numbers. They offered this to 3103, who refused it on behalf of TFL and in line with TFL policy, so they gave it to me.

The police constable then, at the request of 3103 called the specialist TFL transport police unit, who firstly said that they were “on their way” and 15 minutes later refused to send anyone down to Oxford Street to waste their time investigating. Accordingly 3103 got back on the bus, bravely made a well-known sexual gesture at me when the constables were not looking and ordered the driver to continue on to Victoria. This was at 12.15 and the Metropolitan police constables had been on the scene for 45 minutes.

For your records the bus was operated by Arriva Plc and its registration number was BX04 MVW.

I now have some questions for you, Mr Livingstone.

o Why are TFL demanding money from the public to which they are not entitled?

o Why are TFL demanding documentation from the public they do not need? Please note page 16 of the current TFL booklet “Your guide to fares and tickets”, which carries the legend “MAYOR OF LONDON” on the front cover, and states “A photocard is not needed to buy and use any adult rate Bus Pass” (copy enclosed).

o Why are TFL unjustifiably confiscating passengers’ documents, and demanding money for their return?

o Why did TFL treat Arriva’s passengers so badly, on this occasion, by ordering them all off a bus over an unjustified dispute with one of them?

o Why did TFL stop the Arriva bus in busy Oxford Street, (and not in a bus bay) for 45 minutes, irresponsibly obstructing the traffic in both directions?

o Why did TFL irresponsibly waste 1½ hours of Metropolitan Police time in a high crime city like London when that time could have been properly spent serving the community? Will you be apologising on TFL’s behalf to the Met?

As stated I am publishing the above and will also, in fairness, publish any response you wish to make, on behalf of the office of mayor, TFL, or both.

Yours sincerely

Peter Cotterell

cc Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner, Metropolitan Police
David Turner, group managing director, Arriva Plc

23 July 2007

OPEN LETTER NO 2 TO KEN LIVINGSTONE, CURRENTLY MAYOR OF LONDON

Dear Mr Livingstone

I write to you further to my first letter of 8 May. (Copy enclosed).

I note that I have not had a response from you, nor the bus division of Transport for London (TFL) and wonder if the ten-week delay is the normal and acceptable one for acknowledgement of complaints at TFL.

I also note your PR campaign, reported in the London press, to get workers in the London hospitality industry to be more customer-friendly and give visitors to the 2012 Olympics “a welcome they will never forget”. Perhaps you should put your own house at TFL in order first for if visitors are treated to the sort of silly nonsense that I got from TFL (see my letter) then their London visit will certainly be unforgettable, but for all the wrong reasons.

It is interesting that you describe American diplomats who refuse to pay, as they are entitled to, your congestion charge as “chiselling little crooks”. I’d say that TFL, in demanding money they are not entitled to are rather more deserving of your description.

The letters to you, and any response you or TFL’s bus division care to make are being made available to view at www.eou.org.uk. Just visit and click on Kenlivingstone/chisellinglittlecrooks

Yours sincerely

Peter Cotterell