Letters to the editor: TfL’s loss is Network Rail’s gain

 
New role: Sir Peter Hendy (Picture: Daniel Hambury)
29 June 2015
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Sir Peter Hendy’s move to run Network Rail is good news for rail travellers throughout the United Kingdom. It is ironic that the Government has to find a chap who is a “bus man” to run a major rail company, but that simply shows how poor the talent pool is among the senior and middle management of British rail companies.

Another irony is that the man who recently called railway companies “s***” (as a user of Southeastern trains, quite accurately in my view) is now going to spend most of his working day dealing with them.
Paul Twyman

Blunt, brusque even, Sir Peter Hendy is neither an anodyne bureaucrat nor a silken PR man hiding behind slogans. In many respects his direct style and zeal for calling a spade a spade personified London. He is the most influential figure TfL/London Transport has had since Frank Pick, with an impact that can be seen in the transformation of the capital’s buses, Tube and, increasingly, suburban rail.

The days when London’s transport system was inferior to Paris have long gone. Though an efficient transport system at the Olympics will be seen as his greatest success, his legacy will continue well into the future with Crossrail and a vastly increased profile for TfL at a national level.

He is perhaps more hard-headed than emollient — but then again, who said running transport in London was ever easy?
Nick Biskinis, Clapham Transport Users’ Group

Now that Sir Peter Hendy is leaving, one would hope that London would realise that what the capital wants and what the capital needs are two very different beasts. We must realise that TfL is not the best option for the running of London’s railways.

Even the most basic research clearly shows that delays and suspensions on TfL services are on a near-equal par with those of the train-operating companies, and that TfL is flouting the National Rail Conditions of Carriage by not offering super-off-peak and advance fares on London overground services.

How can TfL claim to be better than the train-operating companies when it is not honest about its own failings, and claims to offer the best fares when it so clearly does not?
Ian Roberts

You report that with the crisis in Network Rail some of its biggest and most vital modernisation projects are likely to be cut or scaled back — and yet the pointless duplication known as HS2 goes ahead? It doesn’t make sense.
J H Taylor

Hopefully one of Sir Peter Hendy’s first announcements will be to confirm that the Barking to Gospel Oak line electrification will go ahead next year.
Graham

Dangers of vaping are still not known

It’s good news that Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust is banning the use of e-cigarettes in all its wards and outside areas. Also that patients and visitors spotted using them will be asked to stop, but will be offered replacement therapies to help them quit. Vaping can help users of conventional cigarettes give up smoking, but it could have serious long-term side-effects, so we need to be cautious.

The Government and NICE should amend existing legislation on cigarettes to include vaping to both control and limit what e-cigarettes may or may not contain, and where they may be used.

To get people off conventional cigarettes is commendable, but vaping may well raise new, unknown dangers to both users and those nearby (particularly passive users visiting hospitals who might have already given up smoking and/or vaping).

Legislation should restrict manufacturers from introducing new substances to make vaping more attractive to users until such substances are proven to be safe.
Brian Bean

Litigation is not the answer to pollution

While the protection of infant lungs is obviously desirable, litigation is just as obviously not a cure [“Schools may be sued if pupils fall ill because of pollution”, June 25]. Mass litigation promises to be as much a boon for lawyers as phoney whiplash injury claims have been in recent years.

Relocating schools in urban areas is clearly as impractical as shifting busy main roads, where the pollution is generated, but what about handing out facemasks to filter inhaled air? In places such as Beijing and Tokyo, that appears to be more effective than a 97-page Statement of Claim could ever be.
Stephen Garford

A23 in Streatham needs speed limits

It comes as no surprise to learn that Boris Johnson has failed to take action over three of London’s five most dangerous junctions [News, June 25]. This inertia must come to an end before there are any more tragedies. In Streatham we have seen numerous incidents on the A23 over several years, including the death of a motorcyclist following a collision with a truck on June 8.

More signage is needed on the A23 to reinforce the 30mph speed limit, and a 20mph limit should be enforced in certain sections. Traffic-calming measures such as speed cameras and bumps are also needed along the A23.
Councellor Danny Adilypour (Labour, Streatham South)

Women can use Garrick’s library

For Professor David Mayer, father of gender-equality activist Catherine Mayer, to claim that women do not have full access to the “unique theatrical library” of the Garrick, a club to which he has belonged since 1989, is nonsense upon stilts [Londoner’s Diary, June 25].

The Garrick does not discriminate between male and female scholars, all of whom may have full access to our library under the supervision of our female librarian. This has absolutely nothing to do with the question of whether the club should admit women to its membership, as the professor surely knows full well.
Christopher Silvester, member of the general committee, Garrick Club

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in