Drivers Make Charing Cross Road Rank a Huge Success...By Thomas the Taxi

The saga of Westminster City Council, London Taxi Ranks Traffic Management Orders problem, has been resolved and the Charing Cross Road rank is now fully marked out and up and running. Apparently the council has taken out a ground breaking borough-wide blanket TMO, to cover every rank in Westminster. Taxi ranks will/should be protected by Westminster Parking services, under a code 45 contravention that makes parking on a licensed Taxi rank a ticketable offence.
Addison Lee please take note and keep off our ranks!


Despite my own personal reservations, the rank has been operating extremely well and has been serviced all this week. The Tout shop (as licensed by LTPH) is finding it hard to operate as people choose real Taxis at affordable prices as they leave the area. I would have liked to have seen the rank take up the whole stretch, including the Cranbourn street lights loading bay area, used by minicabs as a rank, to the bus stop outside the 24 hour supermarket/minicab office, but even as it stands, the rank is proving very efficient.

Touts spitting at Taxis

The Minicab drivers have been congregating around Bear Street and Cranbourn Street, desperately trying to tout work as the supply from the 24 hour supermarket dries up. 
Unbelievably, these Licensed Private Hire drivers are now spitting at the Taxis who are legally ranking, in a bid to cause confrontation. The pavement in front of the Taxi rank is a wash with disgusting globules  of tout induced spit.    


PCO enforcement is needed at this rank to keep an eye on the tension, which could escalate into violent attacks on working Taxi drivers. 


Unfortunately, LTPH in conjunction with WCC will not be placing Cab Enforcement Officers at this location, but instead will place two marshals at the rank on Friday and Saturday nights. Coventry Street's Golden Fares Rank will now be suspended. 
The marshals at CXR will have no power whatsoever and will only be able to open and close doors. 
See media announcement from TfL

Is this good value for money. 
Private marshal companies reputedly charge somewhere in the region of £60 per marshal per hour? 
Two marshals at £300 per night, per marshal, an astonishing £1200 over the two nights, that's £62400 annually out of the enforcement budget. 
That money would pay for two PCSO's working 5 nights a week not just weekends!

Cab Enforcement officers at these locations would be better and cheaper, its common sense. But sadly that's something that seems to be missing from TfL/LTPH since they took over control of the Taxi industry from the Met Police.
I would rather see the money be spent on more night shift enforcement officers to be used at this spot as I cannot see a need for someone just to open doors, the passengers already know how to do that.

We need visible enforcement to discourage the touts. Officers with powers of arrest. Perhaps we could utilise some of the thousands of British Transport Police officers (the ones who are often used to catch fare dodgers on buses), or a couple of PCSO who could actually work out much cheaper.

How long have TfL told us they didn't have the money to mark out this rank (which cost, we are informed, just £500)?
Yet they can now find £1200 a week to supply two taxi marshals with no powers other than opening doors!
Why did the LTDA (who have a reputed £4m in the bank) refuse to fund the marking out of this rank and yet paid double to fund a rest rank for 4 cabs in Lincoln's Inn fields?


When all is said and done, the success of this rank hinges on the ordinary working driver who night after night will put their safety at risk to service this rank. These are the ones that I take my hat off to, these are the ones who should get the Kudos.