• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

You have just made the comparison between the RMT's turnout for strike ballots and our turnout for an election, and that is a comparison that Bob Crow made when he appeared before the Assembly's Transport Committee a couple of years ago to explain this. Of course, on a low turnout for an election the worst thing that can happen is that you or I can be elected, which might upset people a little bit when they see the result, but in the case of a strike ballot it is far worse because it disrupts the lives of people for days...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Well that is something which might cheer up Londoners to hear anyway. You told us that the bus network did, in your words, 'a great job'. My experience of the buses over those two days was they were extremely crowded. Were extra buses provided to ameliorate the situation?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Tim O'Toole said yesterday that in fact it had taken him eight and a half hours to explain to the RMT executive the meaning of the words on the paper. Is it acceptable to you that members of your staff effectively put Londoners through two days of hell for no reason at all like that?

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Why did you not personally intervene at that stage?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Well that was the press release, but the news is that this was the most damaging strike on the Underground that London has suffered for ten years. What concessions did you make to the RMT to get them back?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Well I suppose as Chairman for Transport for London they work for you, you see? There was another threat that Bob Crow made when he came back to work; he said, 'If Transport for London keep being disrespectful to me I will give them another strike next week.' That does not seem to me like an adequate reason for disrupting the whole of the transport system in London again. Again, is that acceptable to you?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

How about perhaps more constructive legislation to require a majority of the total membership of that branch of the union to vote for strike action, rather than just a number of people who happen to turn out on the day? We all know that the turnout for these strike ballots is historically low and to do something like that would encourage democracy within the union and free it up from the sort of protection racket that you just described.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

My colleague points out that there are plenty of coaches that you could hire and there are no doubt buses outside London that you could have brought in for the two days. Have you done anything at all to mitigate the effects of the strike? Is there anything that Londoners can look forward to being done to make travel easier for them seeing as we can look forward to this happening to us every time Bob Crow feels insulted or can't understand a document that Transport for London puts in front of him?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Yes, but my point being that now is the time to do it before the next Mayoral election, which may see you return or not. The point is that when people have got a strike that was so damaging fresh in their minds, now is surely the time for you to be making the case to protect important events like the Olympics by taking action to deal with the possible fallout now.

• Question by: Geoff Pope
• Meeting date: 12 September 2007

Given the problems with RMT, who you say are way out of line, what wise counsel have you personally given to Bob Crow on this matter?