Bedlam At Liverpool Street...By Thomas the Taxi.

Hot on the heels of our very successful campaign to get the signs changed at the junction of Park Lane and Cumberland Gate, we will now turn our attention to the impossible job of setting down close to Liverpool Street Station (Without picking up a PCN). 

It's not gone unnoticed, the man responsible for bringing in the thick red line has been pensioned off, much to his own disappointment. Well we believe the ridiculous idea of the thick red line should also be pensioned off ASAP as well.


Taxis wishing to drop close to the front of Liverpool Street Station presently have to either battle with the ranking cabs inside Liverpool Street or perform a U-turn in Bishopsgate, leaving passengers to cross the road with their baggage. 
Alternately we can leave them at the junction of London Wall and Old Broad Street.


At peak times it is almost impossible to turn round in Liverpool Street as our picture below shows, with Taxis ranking both sides, plus the one way exit past the station has been reversed.


For some reason known only to the CoL, Taxis are banned from dropping close to the underground Station in an empty Old Broad Street as our picture above shows, but buses and delivery vans are not: WHY?

TfL and the CoL must use common sense here!

What ever happened to the Mayors Cleaner Air Quality program? 


Surely it would be an advantage to his program to let Taxis have easy access and leave without causing congestion by U-turning and dropping passengers in unsuitable areas in a bid to avoid persecution from the authorities.

If this unsuitable traffic system is to continue then Taxis must be given full access to Old Broad Street and the thick red line must be replaced by double red lines.


Taxi Times is running an email campaign to the Mayor Boris Johnson (about time he contributed some effort towards the ones who helped get him elected) in a bid to get the situation adapted to complement the great service given to rail passengers by the Taxi Trade.


Please take the time to send this email or better still one of your own to:


mayor@london.gov.uk

Dear Mayor Johnson,
I would like to bring to your attention the unreasonable traffic scheme which the City of London has brought to Taxis wishing to use Old Broad Street for passengers going to Liverpool Street Station. 


We can no longer set our passengers down at the nearest entrance, which if coming from the city is Old Broad Street by the underground station. 
Buses and delivery vans are still allowed use of this road but not passenger carrying Taxis. 


This is adding about another four minutes to each journey (as well as about £2.00 more in fares).Then to exit Liverpool Street we need to turn around in less space than the width of our taxis. It then takes an average of five minutes before getting out past the traffic lights, as there is no yellow box junction and buses and other traffic are invariably blocking it!
To view pictures of this daily mayhem please visit (http://eviewmagazine.com/august11/edlines.html) and ask yourself why we need to cause more pollution than absolutely necessary? 


Signed:


Photo's from http://www.eviewmagazine.com/