The Scoop

Boris Johnson holds "public rail summit" in private

Adam Bienkov | Friday 11 March, 2011 12:46

Boris Johnson was accused of breaking his manifesto promise to hold a “public summit of all the train operating companies” today as he met with operators behind closed doors.

London Assembly Members and the press were denied access to the meeting, following months of negative coverage of snow delays, above inflation fare increases and overcharging.

Assembly Members had been allowed to attend the Mayor’s first meeting with operators last year under the condition that they remained silent.

Repeated requests to attend today’s meeting were denied.

Operators are said to have agreed to abolish the unpopular and confusing Oyster Extension Permit system.

The system will reportedly cease operating from May 22nd.

They are also said to have discussed extending the Oyster card to towns just outside London.

However, because of the media ban it is not known whether the Mayor raised “the issue of exorbitant pricing” on national rail services as also promised in his manifesto.

Liberal Democrat London Assembly Member Caroline Pidgeon said today:

Today’s cosy meeting between the Mayor and the train operating companies falls far short of a public summit that the Mayor promised Londoners. The abolition of Oyster Extension Permits is long overdue. They were the daft invention of the Train Operating Companies which totally undermined the benefits of Oyster Pay As You Go.

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