Golden Fare Rank Goes Live....By Thomas the Taxi

Based on an idea given to Martin Low by a caller to the James Whale drive time show on LBC 97.3, the long awaited “Golden Fare” rank has finally been given the go ahead by TfL. The rank will be based at the junction of Coventry and Wardour Street and run from 10pm till 4am.

After many months of negotiation with the different authorities involved, the rank will finally goes live tonight on historically the busiest night of the year. Marshalled by the LTDA, it will continue to run on Friday and Saturday nights for an limited period, to ascertain its effectiveness. But  Mr Low stated on the BBC lunch time news that if it proves unworkable, they will try something else.

Prospective customers will approach a marshal, who will enter the destination on to an iPad. They will then be informed of a fixed price and if agreeable, the driver is then paid up front. A receipt (containing the destination and fixed price) will then be issued  by the Marshal.
This will not be a directional rank and Jobs will not be married up by the marshals.
Any driver putting on this rank will be expected to take what ever job is next in line up to a 12 mile limit.
In conjunction to this Golden Fare rank, Martin Low mentioned a new “Part Time” Taxi rank on the Bus Stand  (site of the old minicab rank) in Whitcomb Street, where drivers who do not wish to participate in the scheme can operate normally.

There are a few worrying aspects with this scheme, such as the heavy congestion caused by illegal ranking of private hire touts. This must be tackled by the Council and Cab Enforcement.
Lets not forget, there will be a sea of hands all over the West End at these peak times and drivers must decided for themselves whether it would be detrimental to leave these people stranded and at the mercy of the touts.

Another problem, is leaving the rank once a pick up has been made. Wardour's exit towards Shaftesbury Avenue is closed to all traffic including Taxi’s till midnight and is vigorously enforced by Westminster Parking Services enforcement cameras.

If Mr Low is so keen for this rank to be successful, perhaps he should arrange the signage to read “No entry except Taxi’s”, this would make leaving the area much easier.

With just a few tweaks, quite a lot of the strain could be taken off the shoulders of drivers wishing to use this rank.

Even so, the travelling public must not be deserted in other locations throughout the city.

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Many Taxi drivers feel Westminster has constantly turned its back on the enforcement of parking restrictions when it comes to private hire vehicles and we have seen impromptu minicab ranks spring up all over the West End.

Here are the main reasons drivers are apprehensive about servicing the centre of the West End at weekends;

• Congestion caused by lines of Private Hire Vehicles parked up and touting, unabated by Police or wardens.
• Violent confrontation from Private Hire Drivers parked on license Taxi ranks.
• Lack of police officers available to help Taxi drivers caught up in incidents.
• Victimisation from Westminster’s CCTV with the ridiculous 2 minute limit on picking up and dropping off.

All these problems are fixable.
If illegal parking /touting problems were to be tackled properly, congestion would eased and we would see more drivers willing to work on weekends nights.