• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

I do not know what you are talking about.

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

You have not really answered my question. There would be a better incentive for them to ensure every passenger paid, if the fares were going towards defraying the costs of running the route.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Well, it is 150 million fares dodged since you came to office.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Yes, of course, it is a lot.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Do you think it would be wise to direct the Transport Operational Command Unit (TOCU) to target those routes that do have bendy buses, so there is a well-built up, publicised track record of actually attacking this problem on bendy buses as a deterrent, and that people would be hit hard on these bus routes if they do try to evade fares, so that there is no encouragement? At the moment, they are advertised as a free bus, and that is an encouragement to people to leap on and leap off.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

You said that some bus routes had a much higher level of evasion than others. Which route has the highest level of evasion?

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

What is the mechanism? How does it work?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

With the introduction of the bendy buses, you have now got an additional problem coming along the track.

• Question by: Joanne McCartney
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

Mr Mayor, residents have written to me about the problem with bendy buses, about the amount of people who can get on them without checking and also about the problems with fare evasion. Would you accept that there is a perception that there is a problem with bendy buses, and perhaps TfL should do some very high-profile work in addressing that perception?

• Question by: Angie Bray
• Meeting date: 17 November 2004

I would like, if I may, to return to the issue of the contracts which my colleague Roger Evans brought up. Surely, there would be a better incentive for the bus companies who are operating the services to make sure that fares are collected, if you actually changed the contracts to make them pay to operate the routes, so it would be in their interests to make sure they carried as many passengers and made sure they paid. At the moment, there is very little incentive for them to bother too much, simply because they do not actually get to...