Enquiry Into The Growth Of River Taxi Services

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Richard Tracey AM to be witness at London Assembly Transport Committee enquiry

Next Tuesday the London Assembly Transport Committee will conduct an enquiry into the growth in river taxi services and other river transport over recent years. This follows a previous GLA enquiry in 2006 which was reported in "London's forgotten highway".

Richard Tracey, GLA Member for Wandsworth and Merton and the Mayor's Ambassador for River Transport will be one of the witnesses, representing the Mayor's Office.

The others are Leon Daniels, Managing Director of TfL Surface Transport, Sean Collins, Managing Director of Thames Clippers, and Richard Everitt, Chief Executive of the Port of London Authority.

Richard Tracey says: "Travelling on the river is one of the great pleasures of London - it is a safe, comfortable, and reliable way to travel from west to east. The Mayor's vision which I help to promote is that river transport should be an integral and wholly available part of the transport network. Work is well advanced to improve central London piers and to open new ones upstream like St George, Vauxhall, and the proposed one at Battersea Reach.

He continued: "The river is more popular than ever before as evidenced by my postbag, and passenger numbers have grown by 36% in the past four years of Boris johnson's Mayoralty, and demand has doubled in 8 years. We have regular meetings in the River Concordat of riverside boroughs, developers, boat operators, and pier owners, as well as TfL and the PLA. We are particularly aiming at visitors  using river transport during the Olympics.

"Most important we have introduced Oyster PAYG on the river, developed new flags for the piers, and improved signage and information between piers and stations across the network"

The GLA Transport Committee session will be webcast live at 10am on Tuesday 17th January on www.london.gov.uk/who-runs-london/the-london-assembly/webcasts

January 13, 2012