London Transport Research Articles

Photography after the Incidents: We’re Not Afraid!

Photography after the Incidents: We’re Not Afraid!

Photography after the Incidents

Photography after the Incidents

Multiagency Coordination and Response: Case Study of the July 2005 London Bombings1

On July 7, 2005, terrorists carried out a series of bombings in London's underground subway system and transportation network. Fifty‐two people were killed and more than 700 were injured. The authors of this study interviewed key staff from London agencies to evaluate the response to the London attacks and analyzed the responses using the General Coordination Model defined in prior research (Eyerman and Strom, 2005). Results indicate that the London coordination regime, which is characterized by a high level of preplanning, joint exercises, and regular improvement through constant use, minimized the effect of common barriers to multiagency response. Successful elements of the London response included the rapid recognition and declaration of a major incident; a successful command and control system that involved all key agencies and which was implemented quickly following the bombings; limited disagreement across agencies on roles and responsibilities; and, delivery of a single, unified media message.

Brixton station congestion relief project, London

The Victoria line, extended to Brixton by July 1971, was London's first completely new underground line since the ‘tube boom’ of the early twentieth century. The new line created connections between the underground and national rail networks, and relieved congestion on London's transport network. Three decades later, Brixton station was at the forefront of a new challenge, this time to improve accessibility of the London Underground network to disabled and encumbered passengers. In 2001 work began to provide step-free access from street to platform levels at Brixton station, to alleviate congestion within the station, and to harness additional benefits by constructing new office and retail facilities. This paper describes the construction, emergency preparedness, site safety, contract administration and assurance aspects of delivering the project. The project successfully executed demolition, building construction, structural, tunnelling and services works while maintaining the safe and effective operation of the station. A number of recommendations are made to assist in the execution of similar projects.

The way ahead for London's bus priority at traffic signals

London has a long history of successful schemes for bus priority at traffic signals. Recently, Transport for London (TfL) has procured a modern automatic vehicle location (AVL) system for bus fleet management, passenger information and bus priority. The new system is known as iBUS and is based on global positioning system (GPS) and supporting technologies for bus location. The system eliminates the need for on-street hardware for detecting buses and provides more flexibility and opportunity for using bus detectors. However, bus location based on this system is less accurate than location based on fixed infrastructure (e.g. beacons) and could result in reduced benefits from bus priority. This paper first summarises how bus priority at traffic signals works within iBUS, and then explores the effects of GPS locational errors on bus priority benefits. This is followed by a discussion of opportunities available in the context of iBUS to build an even more efficient and beneficial bus priority system by taking advantage of its cost-effective multiple detection capabilities. The paper is based on various studies carried out by the Transportation Research Group (TRG) at the University of Southampton for TfL.

European Diversity, Religion and Citizenship

After the terrorist attacks on the London transport network on 7 July 2005 some academics and journalists announced the ‘death of multiculturalism’ in Europe. Multiculturalism, however, cannot be dead because it is a social reality for millions of Europeans. Not only these who live in the global cities like London, Paris, Rome, and others, but also those who live in small ones like the Italian City of Peace, Rovereto. All the European societies from east to west and from north to south have become increasingly diverse, multicultural, multiracial and multi-religious. This diversity is producing not only high levels of uncertainty, but also lack of social cohesion. As Putnam notices in his latest large-scale study of social solidarity in American society, in the ethnically diverse areas there is less trust and civic engagement.2 Such areas lack, above all, meaningful social encounters.

Clinical review: The role of the intensive care physician in mass casualty incidents: planning, organisation, and leadership

There is a long-standing, broad assumption that hospitals will ably receive and efficiently provide comprehensive care to victims following a mass casualty event. Unfortunately, the majority of medical major incident plans are insufficiently focused on strategies and procedures that extend beyond the pre-hospital and early-hospital phases of care. Recent events underscore two important lessons: (a) the role of intensive care specialists extends well beyond the intensive care unit during such events, and (b) non-intensive care hospital personnel must have the ability to provide basic critical care. The bombing of the London transport network, while highlighting some good practices in our major incident planning, also exposed weaknesses already described by others. Whilst this paper uses the events of the 7 July 2005 as its point of reference, the lessons learned and the changes incorporated in our planning have generic applications to mass casualty events. In the UK, the Department of Health convened an expert symposium in June 2007 to identify lessons learned from 7 July 2005 and disseminate them for the benefit of the wider medical community. The experiences of clinicians from critical care units in London made a large contribution to this process and are discussed in this paper.

Practical attacks against RFID

Radio frequency identification isn't new. The basic concepts have been around since the 1940s, but thanks to economies of scale, better manufacturing processes and more capable back-end data management, the technology is coming of age. We're seeing the tags in everything from poker chips to passports, and it has created significant concerns in some security circles. One expert worried about RFID is Adam Laurie, who has accumulated considerable practical knowledge of short-range radio technologies. Laurie, who recently mounted an attack on the UK Government's RFID-enabled passport for the Times newspaper, explains the underlying mechanics of the technology - and its weaknesses. Many people will be familiar with RFID technology without being aware of what it is, to what degree it is being deployed in the modern world, or even that it exists at all. Most of us will have come into contact with it either through an access control system such as a 'Prox' card or keyfob, used to gain access to our buildings. In the UK, the Transport for London 'Oyster' card carries an RFID chip^1. In the near future, all European citizens will carry one when they travel abroad, in the form of an 'ePassport', and possibly even when walking the streets in the UK, with the proposed national ID card^2. But how secure is this technology, and can we really trust it with our most precious data or the security of our cars, alarm systems, and buildings?

Trade unions and racism in London, Brussels and Paris public transport

ABSTRACTThis article considers how trade unions respond to systemic racism at work. Based on case studies in the UK, Belgium and France, it identifies a gap between the national‐level anti‐racist policies of several European trade unions and local‐level union workplace practices: direct racism is often denied and indirect racism rarely challenged. It describes and analyses this gap arguing that unions must more consciously champion anti‐racism and recommends a leadership role for workplace representatives.

Combination Bidding in Multi-Unit Auctions

This paper considers the problem of identi…cation and estimation in the …rst-price multi- unit auction. It is motivated by the auctions of bus routes held in London where bidders submit bids on combinations of routes as well as on individual routes. We show that submitting a combination bid lower than the sum of the bids on the constituent routes does not require cost synergies and can instead serve as a tool to leverage market power across the dierent routes. As a result, the welfare consequences of allowing combina- tion bidding in the …rst price auction are ambiguous, and depend on the importance of the cost synergies. We provide conditions for non-parametric identi…cation of the mul- tidimensional private information in the multi-unit …rst price auction and derive partial identi…cation results when they are not satis…ed. We propose an estimation method consisting of two stages: In the …rst stage, the distribution of bids is estimated para- metrically. In the second stage, the (set of) costs and distribution(s) of costs consistent with the observed behavior are inferred based on the …rst order conditions for optimally chosen bids. We apply the estimation method to data from the London bus routes mar- ket. We quantify the magnitude of cost synergies and assess possible e¢ ciency losses arising in this market. � We are grateful to several o¢ cials at London Transport Buses and at the London Omnibus Traction Society for their help in collecting the data, and to Ioannis Ioannou, Bryan Lincoln, Bill Simpson, Qinan

The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes: New Border Politics?

The shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in Stockwell Station, South London, on 22 July 2005, was described as a “tragic mistake” by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair. This framing of the killing has come to dominate responses to it in the mainstream media. However, such a framing stymies critical questioning about what happened and colludes in the reproduction of a particular framework of understanding within which sovereign power has retrospectively valorized his death. By contrast this article reads the shooting as one of multiple responses of the British state to the bombings of the London transport network on 7 July 2005 and locates Menezes';s death within the broader context of the global “War on Terror.” Rather than a “mistake,” the author argues that the shooting is symptomatic of systemic features of Western politics and in particular innovations in the ways sovereign power attempts to secure the spatial and temporal borders of sovereign political community.

The accuracy of regulatory cost estimates: a study of the London congestion charging scheme

AbstractThis paper considers the accuracy of regulatory cost estimates using the London congestion charging scheme as a case study. In common with other regulations, ex ante estimates of the direct costs of the scheme were produced by the regulator, Transport for London. Reviews of a number of environmental and industrial regulations have shown that ex ante costs tend to exceed the ex post (or outturn) costs. This study finds that while Transport for London moderately overestimated the total costs of the scheme (by 16%) there was a significant overestimate of chargepayer compliance costs (by 64%). The main reasons for this were greater than expected reductions in traffic and unanticipated technological innovation. As the compliance cost is essentially the cost of transacting payment of the charge, these results have wider implications for other similar regulations. One example is the proposed national road user charging in the UK, where it could reasonably be expected that the ex post cost of compliance will again be lower than the ex ante estimate, and that compliance costs will continue to reduce over time. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

The Technological Gaze

The Technological Gaze

Safer travel at night: Mayor of London, Transport for London, Metropolitan Police, Incentivated Ltd

The Mayor of London, Transport for London (TfL) and the Metropolitan Police have teamed up with mobile marketing agency Incentivated Ltd to launch the world's first text service that enables safer minicab travel in London. The service connects Incentivated's cross-network ‘find my nearest’ application to TfL's constantly evolving database of licensed minicabs, enabling Londoners to receive and call the phone numbers of local licensed minicab firms, from their mobile phones, wherever they are in Greater London. For the telephone numbers of two licensed minicab operators in your area and one general black cab number, text HOME to 60835 (standard rate+35p). With extensive press and news coverage generated, the ‘Safer Travel at Night’ campaign, now TfL's most popular mobile service, has seen an ongoing rise in the number of text requests, more than 70,000 unique users to date, while reducing the number of minicab-related assaults in London by an estimated 45 per cent. Stop Press: TfL's HOME service relaunched on 12/12/06 as ‘cabwise’. For further information please email: info@incentivated.com

Impact of climate change on London's transport network

There is much discussion about the contribution of transport to global warming, but what about the impact of our changing climate on transport modes, infrastructure and passengers? This paper examines the potential impacts of climate change on London's transport systems, based on the findings of a research study undertaken for the London Climate Change Partnership between 2004 and 2005. Recent extreme weather events have had significant impact on London's transport systems; for example, the effect of high temperatures on London Underground and major flooding of roads and railway stations. Scenarios of climate change show that London will experience hotter summers, wetter winters, more intense rainfall and a rise in sea level over the coming century. This poses a number of risks to the operation and use of transport systems in a city where 26 million trips are made every day. The study focuses on four case studies. Each case study assesses: the issue now, drawing on current weather-related effects; how climate change will affect the future; the action already underway in London to address climate impacts; and options and timescales for adaptation. It is apparent that most risks already exist—climate change will simply make them worse. With forward planning, successful and cost-effective adaptation can be achieved.

An Aesthetics of Fear: The 7/7 London Bombings, the Sublime, and Werenotafraid.com

How are the aesthetics of fear politically mobilised and politically mobilising? This article directs this question to a specific series of events beginning with the bombing of the London transportation system on 7/7, the near repeat performance of this event on 7/21, and the `Shoot to Kill to Protect' policy's first application which resulted in the killing of electrician Jean Charles de Menezes on 7/22. In particular, it addresses itself to one specific aestheticisation of fear, the images posted on the website Werenotafraid.com and the incessant circulation and discussion of these images since 7/7. The article a rgues that the asetheticisation of the London bombings through this specific website illustrates the often overlooked second movement in the Kantian sublime: the movement from rupture to a restoration of o rder and of closure. What interests me are the aesthetic strategies by which Werenotafraid.com effects a restoration of order and gives c losure to the breakdown of the British imagination, of not only national security but also unity. This article first traces the reliance of these aesthetic strategies on a Kantian morality. It then explains how these Kantian-inflected strategies repair the breakdown of the British imagination of security through a very specific `panhuman' restoration of British unity. Finally, it analyses the failures of the Werenotafraid.com project, politically and morally.

The governance of transport in London then and now

This article evaluates the present arrangements for delivering transport policy in London by comparison with those in place before the 1999 Act. It finds that the present structures are better coordinated, with strategy and delivery concentrated in the hands of the Mayor. Services are less efficient in monetary terms, mainly as a result of earlier government decisions, but the traffic and transport system is effective and responds to citizens' and users' priorities. The Mayor's popular legitimacy, and a democratic accountability reduced by weak scrutiny, has enabled unpopular strategies to be implemented. The combination of concentrated political power in support of a well-managed transport organisation must be judged a success.

Making a new home in the diaspora: opportunities and dilemmas in the British South Asian experience

This special issue focuses on the diverse experiences of the South Asian Diaspora in Britain as its members make new homes and identities outside the subcontinent. It has two main intentions. First, it attempts to show how it is possible to bring together much of the small-scale case-study literature on the diaspora by concentrating on significant and continuing themes in the diaspora experience. All members of diasporas have core tasks to perform as they make new homes for themselves outside their countries of origin. Here, our authors pay particular attention to the work of creating sacred and domestic space being done by South Asians in Britain—work that has to be continued through successive generations and well beyond the first stage of movement outside South Asia. Second, the authors hope to indicate why scholars and other readers beyond those who particularly study diasporas should be concerned with the British South Asian experience. Not only is this particular ethnic diaspora a persistent part of the subcontinent's own history, it also is significant for an understanding of Britain's social, economic, political and cultural history. The British South Asian experience is particularly important in the light of the attacks on the London transport system in July 2005. These raised important issues concerning diaspora community identity and cohesion, and religious authority and leadership, particularly the disengagement of many young South Asians from traditional religious institutions, which is a central theme in many of the contributions.

Road pricing: lessons from London

This paper assesses the original London Congestion Charging Scheme (LCCS) and its impacts, and it simulates the proposed extension which will include most of Kensington and Chelsea. It also touches upon the political economy of the congestion charge and the increase of the charge from £5 to £8 per day. The possibility of transferring the experience to Paris, Rome and New York is also discussed. The LCCS has had positive impacts. This was despite the considerable political influences on the charge level and location. It is difficult to assess the impacts of the increase of the charge from £5 to £8, which took place in July 2005, because no data have yet been released by Transport for London. The proposed extension of the charging zone does not seem to be an efficient change on economic grounds, at least for the specific boundaries, method of charging and level of charging that is currently planned. Our benefit cost ratios computed under different assumptions of costs and benefits are all below unity. Overall, the experience shows that simple methods of congestion charging, though in no way resembling first-best Pigouvian taxes, can do a remarkably good job of creating benefits from the reduction of congestion. Nevertheless, the magnitude of these benefits can be highly sensitive to the details of the scheme, which therefore need to be developed with great care.

BOOK REVIEWS

I originally ventured out to buy this book as a stocking filler for my 19-year-old son who, like many of his generation, is not a stranger to marijuana. However, the usual delays on the London transport system resulted in my thumbing through the very expensive pages of this slim hardbacked book before it reached his stocking. I devoured this academic yet compulsive book as I would a novel, unable to release it until it was finished.