Koncordski said:
I'm all for it. If you live in central london i guarantee you can afford to pay the charge and if you are driving there on business the company pays. They are investing huge amounts in the Tube and Bus network and you can see the improvements although there is a long way to go.
Facts:
- Tube is overloaded and overcrowded as it is. Squeezing more people inside won't stretch tunnels in any direction. That's guaranteed. Even July 7th bomb massacre in pre-war tunnels didn't change the fact TFL want to cover their losses extra pronto and will do it in unventilated, overheated, system that was never designed for such volumes and doesn't have any emergency access or internal communication system. Whichever way they improve it, no matter how they paint stations and what surround sound music systems they install on platforms you still can't fit in peak hour trains as it is, so...
- Regular double decker buses were replaced by 18 metre monstrocities that take more space and produce more emissions than before. So clearly neither traffic nor emissions were an issue in the first place.
- Plumbers, sparkies, builders, engineers and contractors won't take their trade and tools into Tube or Buses. Neither will delivery vans, couriers or even anyone who has to wear Armani to work or someone who has to be on time or at least reachable at all times. People who carry cash, important papers, classified materials in electronics forms, presentations that can't be squashed or damaged, techies with equipment, anyone in dirty overalls, anyone with flamable materials, delicate materials and elements, large paperwork and so on, so forth.
- If the best figure CC ever achieved was 30% reduction in traffic then it doesn't mean people don't care about £8 toll, but that 70% of traffic was buses, taxis and those who can't skip the area.
Of course no one cares about how many emissions and fossil fuel is burnt while everyone else drives around CC zone....