• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

Absolutely. Given all those advantages you have spelt out and the very positive customer feedback that you have had on route 29, it is pretty unimaginable that `bendy' buses disappear from the streets of London, is it not?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

I will come back to the question of style, and I offer my party's congratulations and good wishes to you. Of course, the Commissioner can very much help to set the style of the organisation, and I am sure we would all agree about that. I was recently at an event organised by one of the major business organisations in London and a director of a plc (public limited company) involved with TfL regularly on surface transport issues described your organisation as the `most high-handed, arrogant, unresponsive, and difficult organisation' he had ever dealt with in his business life. How...

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

People at both ends have problems, but obviously you are looking at it, so that is fine. Thank you.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

One further question. That is as far as we can go, I guess. Would it not have been better if the Mayor had not answered that the tests found they were not suffering from the fault originally identified, because of course that is entirely misleading given what we were also hearing from the manufacturer at the same time? That is the sort of problem about style that I come back to. It would have been so much better if he had been able to recognise there was a problem, it was being looked at, and it was an ongoing situation...

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

Are not the final audit reports just the ones that say you have cleared it all up and it is all right now? The ones which we are interested in are the ones that come first which say what the faults are and what needs to be done, are they not?

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

I think that is a helpful answer and I am grateful for it. Perhaps one of the things that we could do to deal with the perception that people have in outer London that TfL is remote from them will be a greater visibility of yourself as Commissioner on all modes of transport ' buses and the Tube ' because very often a lot of constituents say to me that the guys at TfL are very remote and they have never taken a bus down there or driven a car along a particular road there. Anything that you and your...

• Question by: Andrew Pelling
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

Do you think it would be reasonable to say that in peak hours `bendy' buses are not as appropriate a bus service as ordinary double-deckers would be for people who are frail or unwell? It really is a service best left for perhaps the fit city worker to use during peak hours, bearing in mind that you would be fairly unlikely to be guaranteed to get a seat?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

Good morning, Peter. Can I add my congratulation to that of my colleague? I am sure we are going to have a long and interesting relationship. 3 My question links to John's [Biggs, AM] statement in terms of referring to you as a `bus nut'. The introduction of the `bendy bus' has undoubtedly been a key success for TfL. However, there are a number of problems associated with this type of bus as evidenced from the fact that, certainly my experience, we are receiving an increased numbers of letters from distressed older users of these buses. What are the top...

• Question by: Bob Neill
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

Referring to elected representatives' views as `astounding and disappointing' because they happened to disagree with you, many of us might say smacks of the most extraordinary arrogance.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

For my purposes here today, I do not have a problem with you being a `bus nut'. I wonder whether your arrival will herald a new style of approach towards members of the public and certain communities who have problems with particular bus operations, who find that a year on they are still being told officially by TfL that there really is not a problem despite the information they are getting from elsewhere. You will no doubt guess that I am referring to the use of certain Volvo buses on certain routes and the fact that this has been ongoing...