• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

First of all, I congratulate you on your appointment. I was very happy you were appointed and I wish you well. One of the great successes of TfL has been the improvement in bus services. Some would say it has almost gone too far, and the example of Oxford Street is cited where you could walk along the roofs of buses from one end to the other without them actually having to move. It was an early win, but is it not the case that the harder bit now is to consolidate that and to focus on the things like...

• Question by: Valerie Shawcross
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

On this issue of transparency in style, I think the Assembly is naturally focused on what TfL does rather than how it is done and I think there is a large extent to which TfL is a black box because you do not know what is going on inside it if you are an Assembly Member. There are risks here. One of the things I discovered when I started to ask some questions was the almost complete impossibility 4 of obtaining information about internal audit within TfL, particularly TfL's street management, where I think there are big risks. I very...

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

I want to raise the issue of public consultation. If I take bus route 29 as an example to which you have already referred, there are still issues at the Haringey end of that with regard to the narrowness of roads. What really annoyed residents was that they were not consulted. When I pressed [TfL] on this, the reason that was given was because it was such a long route and goes through so many different boroughs that it was not practical, therefore basically just the local councils and elected representatives were involved. I think that attitude has to be...

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

I have another question about your style as a `bus nut'. Certainly as far as Lewisham goes, I think the service on route 436 has improved infinitely since tatty, clapped-out old Routemasters were replaced by new `bendy' buses. I was a bit concerned by the Mayor's comments at People's Question Time the other week that basically `bendy' buses were on trial and we could see them disappear. Whilst I accept that they are not suitable for all routes and it is only a very small number of routes that they are suitable for, do you seriously think there is a...

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

I am not going to get involved in the details of an argument between you and Miss Hoey, but I am concerned more generally about the style that that implies. That is the point I was interested in. Can I raise one simple other point on the Transport Strategy, which you rightly referred to? I do not regard you as a `bus nut' or typecast by any manner of means, but the Transport Strategy highlights the fact that, particularly in outer London, the private motor car will remain, certainly in the foreseeable future, the major means of transport for most...

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

I will come with you.

• Question by: Peter Hulme Cross
• Meeting date: 15 March 2006

What are you going to do about fare evasion? I have in mind particularly bendy buses where there is a perception that because you have three doors and you can enter by any one of them that it is a free ride.

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

I think issues do not change but people and approaches do. One of the things that Bob [Kiley] used to tell us, and the Mayor also, was that the Commissioner had the power of veto over members of the board of TfL, in effect. Is that a power that you will enjoy or use?

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

He is not a contractor, so I think that little sneer does not work, Mr Hendy.

• Question by: Jenny Jones
• Meeting date: 18 January 2006

One of my concerns is that as the bus fares and Tube fares rise, we are actually going to almost force people back into their cars. That is one of the reasons I so much agreed with you about getting under-16s free on the buses; I thought that was totally inappropriate because it makes buses more crowded for other people who might want to use them. Do you think we are going to see a situation where bus fares and Tube fares mean that it actually is worth paying the Congestion Charge and using private cars again?