I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase, ‘There are lies, damned lies, and statements from Transport for London’, or maybe I just made that up, but not without justification.
If, like me, you travel regularly on public transport in our capital city, then you will have been bombarded with TfL’s marketing phrase, ‘Every journey matters'. They pump this blatant untruth out through loudspeaker announcements, and it is emblazoned across numerous advertising hoardings.
I appreciate that running the London underground system, parts of the over-ground network, the Docklands Light Railway and the city’s buses is a significant job, but Sir Sadiq Khan has been The Mayor of London for nine years now, and under his leadership I find travelling in London is an experience that is getting worse, and not better.
Revenue enforcement teams sadly must work in groups because there’s safety in numbers. They wear stab vests and carry more kit than I did when I was a uniformed police officer. Because they need to hunt in packs they are spread very thinly, and the scumbags know this, consequently hooded fare dodgers are a sickeningly common sight.
Those of you who may fly into Heathrow Airport might be pleased by the latest addition to the underground network, the Elizabeth Line, which was approved in 2007 and completed in 2023. It is a thing of beauty when it works. Currently, 20 per cent of trains are delayed, it has been beset by problems, and Mayor Khan has been forced to make several apologies.
Mind you, they only spent £19billion on it, so what do you expect at such a paltry price!
Crime across the underground network is rising at a terrifying rate. About half of offences are committed on trains, and half at stations, and if my experience of speaking to victims is anything to go by, then I suspect thousands of crimes are going unreported, because when I talk to young women who have been harassed, assaulted or worse, and I ask if they contacted the police, they usually reply, ‘What’s the point?’
Thefts have increased massively, as pickpockets find rich pickings on the tube. Robberies are up, as are sexual offences, so every day more people are subjected to violence or the threat of violence. Meanwhile, Khan denies any responsibility as he deflects the blame towards anyone but himself.
What I had to endure on London's two worst tube lines confirms to me Sadiq Khan has to go - Peter BleksleyFacundo Arrizabalaga
I’ve contacted him, TFL and the British Transport Police frequently, as I have the huge misfortune to travel on the Central and Bakerloo lines regularly.
On virtually every trip I make, I must endure revolting graffiti which is sprayed, daubed, or scrawled on the floors, doors, walls, and ceilings of the ageing carriages. I film this dirge on my phone and sent it to those whose job it is to do something about this completely unacceptable state of affairs.
On very rare occasions, one of those organisations may acknowledge one of my videos, but in the main they ignore their failings, consequently, nothing changes. In the meantime, travelling becomes an even more unpleasant experience.
This week, the Lib Dems joined the debate by calling for fines to be imposed on those who play music or videos loudly on public transport, but that proposal, like so much of what Ed Davey spouts, will never become law.
I would dearly love my journeys not to be blighted by feet on seats, loud conversations on phones, graffiti, litter, having to swerve prostrate and zoned-out homeless people, and all the crimes that affect so many others, but this country is on a downward spiral where good manners are seen by many as a sign of weakness, when the really weak people are so many of our elected leaders.
I wonder what depths we will have to plumb before someone in power finally says, enough is enough?
