TfL announce vehicle scrappage scheme – £2,000 for each car
Transport for London have today announced a scrappage scheme paying £2,000 for older cars and £1,000 for motorbikes.
The scheme is to combat opposition to the Ultra-Low Emission Zone and schemes such as Silvertown Tunnel which will greatly increase congestion – according to TfL themselves. This scheme may see fewer emissions but does not aim to reduce vehicle numbers on the road.
Nice if you can get it – but is this the best way to spend £25 million? The poorest Londoners can’t even afford a car. Yours truly included after paying rent and high living and transport costs in London.
And this is being offered while bus cuts are ongoing. Earlier in 2019 the 486 serving QE Hospital saw sizable cuts in frequency. Other routes across London have been reduced. The 161 serving QE Hospital also saw cuts in frequency implemented in 2018.
New routes do occasionally start like the 335 this weekend, but that’s offset by chipping away frequencies at numerous other routes. The 472 is due to see cuts though ongoing Crossrail delays have hindered that intention.
Would £25 million not be better spent on helping the most vulnerable and poorest? Those people already lack a car. Would more people on public transport be a better way to spend scant funds on reducing emissions?
I totally agree with you Murky. There needs to be much more investment in public transport and in particular bus services. Which have seen huge cuts of late to services by cutting back routes and reducing frequencies.
Even if you can afford a car the car parking fees are astronomical and most people just cannot afford to pay them on a daily basis to park all day while at work,
I agree with you both Murky and CDT. There needs to be major investment in public transport and in Greenwich alone the public transport infrastructure as not really been improved in despite the massive developments built around the Borough over the last few years.
Car parking fees are astronomical and Hospital car park fees are even worse and extremely high and not affordable for most people which includes staff patients and visitors. So cutting bus services that serves Hospitals as we have seen recently with cuts to frequencies on both routes 161 and 486 Serving Queen Elizabeth Hospital are totally unacceptable and shows the current Mayor of London is not really interested in improving Public Transport in Greater London.
TFL have plans in place to withdraw route 428 between Between Crayford and Bluewater and route 492 between Dartford and Bluewater in December 2019 which would mean route 428 would no longer serve Darent Valley Hospital if the changes to routes 428 and 492 go ahead as planned.
The only way I was able to take my father to his monthly check-up at QE hospital was through the use of a Taxicard. From Humber Road to QEH its not particularly easy for an old fellow with limited mobility, and he fiun
Gahh – anyway as I was saying he’d find buses trying at the best of times. This was a few years ago so I can’t imagine how it is now, particularly for the elderly who must travel unaccompanied. Transport planners often forget that vulnerable human beings need time and assistance: one need only look at the pedestrian crossing outside King’s College Hospital which has only a few seconds allocated for unwell or infirm to cross four lanes.
Why has you dad not applied to the hospital for patient services to arrange ambulance to collect your dad from home taken him to the hospital for his out patient appointment and then and bring him home again.
If your dad needs some one with him to they can sometimes arrange for you to travel with your father if this is required. May be worth looking in to.
But for many many others they rely on the bus as their main or only form of public transport.
My late mother ‘relied’ on hospital transport for a while and it was unpleasant and taxing for her. The wait period is quite long; you’re one of a fee travelling (in this case to King’s) which is an endurance in itself. Arranging return transport means a wait for anything up to two hours. The last time we used it they provided a people carrier with no way for my disabled mother to board and after being booted to the queue for the next shuttle we had to call a minicab. My poor mum had almost no immune system left so you can imagine how stressful the hours of transit and waiting were. The idea is sound and I hope for others it is not as problematic. But as with so many outsourced services the quality roulette rarely favours the house or the customer.
Charles firstly May I say i am so very sorry to hear of the loss of your late mother and the problems she has had with the Patient Transport Service. This must have been very distressing for your mum your father and yourself. I do feel for you Charles and hope yourself and your dad is keeping as well as can be expected.
I hope some of the issues you have raised will be looked at by the private companies that now offer the Patient Transport Services on behalf on the NHS.
The taxi card scheme is excellent for people suffering from mobility issues and I know can be a god send for many people.
Getting to Kings College Hospital or Guys Hospital from the Borough of Greenwich is a nightmare at the best of time for many patients, through heavy traffic and no direct bus services,which involves at least one or two changes of buses. This is very difficult at the best of times for anyone let alone a seriously ill patient the elderly or disabled.
Cuts to bus services do not help as the remaining buses get busier which mean more people are often standing or left behind at bus stops in the peaks and at school times.
There is a need for more investment in public transport and this should be a priority.