Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
Livingstone has an abrasive personality but his prior record as London Mayor is good. He was responsible for pushing hard for the Olympics long before Labour became interested, he implemented the Oyster Card system and other methods of speeding up the boarding of London buses, he introduced the congestion charge scheme which has helped reduce the ridiculous level of traffic in central London.
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The problem with Ken is that he had very little interest in anything south of the river, and even when he did show interest, it was only in buses.
Yes, he pushed for the Olympics (and deserves credit for that), and yes he did introduce the Oyster (which also deserves credit). However, he singularly failed to get widespread adoption of Oyster beyond TFL, and blamed the then government for not giving him the power to compel the train companies to introduce it.
A power which (AFAIK) Boris still doesn't have, yet he managed to get the train companies to start accepting Oyster.
Ken also ensured that the Unions had massive power at TFL Something which is not good for any of us (not even the union members as their actions have only increased TFL's desire to automate as much as possible).
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