Kingston Area Travellers' Association

The London Assembly Transport Committee’s response to the Mayor’s draft strategy highlights concerns that overcrowding, congestion and carbon emissions will not be tackled effectively without further intervention from the Mayor.

In the reality of restricted resources – particularly funding and road space – and a growing population, the Strategy should set out the Mayor’s thinking in relation to the difficult decisions he and his successors will face.

These decisions include setting future fare levels; the relative priority of the stalled step-free access programme compared to schemes to provide additional capacity; balancing the flow of vehicles against the movement and safety of buses and pedestrians; and the potential for financial incentivisation schemes to encourage people to change the way they travel.

Two pickpockets who preyed on pensioners, including a 91-year-old, in bus queues in and around Kingston, have received three year prison sentences. Both Perry Mahoney, 48, from Stockwell, and David Turner, 50, from Lambeth, were sentenced to three years and four months.

South West Trains (SWT) has pledged to improve its communications with passengers, after a number of incidents during last week’s snow storms left people confused and without information. For example, passengers at Worcester Park station were waiting for up to an hour-and-a-half for a train to Waterloo on Wednesday evening, even though the departure boards indicated that trains were running on time.