Open Letter RE: Assisting the Inevitable Independent Inquiry about the Safety of the London Contracted 'Bus Market’ Model

Elly Baker, Chair
London Assembly Transport Committee
City Hall
Kamal Chunchie Way
London E16 1ZE

cc: London Assembly Transport Committee, Members and Staff

Dear Elly Baker,

RE: Open Letter - Assisting the Inevitable Independent Inquiry ​

about the Safety of the London Contracted 'Bus Market’ Model​

Congratulations on your re-election to the London Assembly and your selection to serve as Chair of the Transport Committee. You may recall that we had a chance to meet on 14 December 2021 when I gave evidence as a veteran TfL Bus Driver for the Transport Committee’s Investigation of the Mayor’s Vision Zero Programme.
​

While you're busy considering your Committee's plan-of-work for the coming four years, I'd like to call your attention to some Transport Committee scrutiny that I believe that might be required in the nearest future, specifically to assist that requested in Resolution 6 carried unanimously by the RMT National Industrial Organising Conference of Bus Workers on 28 April 2023:​

Resolution 6: Independent Inquiry about
the Safety of the London Contracted 'Bus Market’ Model ​

"That this RMT National Bus Workers Industrial Organising Conference calls upon the RMT N.E.C. to support and campaign for an independent inquiry about the safety of the London Contracted Bus Market Model that is being adopted by other UK cities. This conference notes that, while London’s Contracted Bus Market Model is being adopted by other cities and regions throughout the UK, the London Assembly and independent campaigners have published well evidenced reports showing that TTL’s contracted bus operation is as described by a former TfL board member and safety panel chair in evidence submitted to the London Assembly in 2020, “Institutionally unsafe”. ​

Over the 5 year period from 2016-2021, from collisions involving a TfL bus, an average of two people per day have been sent to hospital and 1 person has been killed every four to six weeks, an egregious bus safety performance record that places London in the lowest quartile for bus safety performance when independently benchmarked to its world city peers. Added to this appalling bus safety performance record is the fact that during the COVID pandemic, drivers died at twice the rate as expected based on age, ethnicity and home post code. ​

Based on the London Model’s well evidenced poor safety performance record, this conference calls upon the RMT N.E.C. to ask the House of Commons to launch an independent Inquiry of the systematic safety problems associated with TfL’s Contracted Bus Market Model." ​

Although your colleague on the Transport Committee, Keith Prince AM, brought this important Resolution to the Mayor's attention in May 2023, Sadiq Khan's non-committal response coupled with the lack of news from Westminster or City Hall about any Independent Inquiry suggests that what RMT's Bus Workers requested in 2023 remains unconsidered by the public officials vested with the powers to do it.
​

However, with the Labour Party's imminent national election victory and its Manifesto committing a Labour Government to 'build on the work of Labour mayors' to give 'new powers for local leaders to franchise local bus services'—I believe that the Safety Performance of London's Bus Franchise Model will become the focus of a lot of scrutiny, if not from City Hall, certainly from Westminster and the national press.​

Why?

Because, as you most certainly already know—

• London is home to the largest franchised Bus Operation in the United Kingdom: TfL Bus Franchise Contracts account for 50 percent of UK Bus Journeys conveyed by 25 percent of the country's Bus Fleet;​
• On 11 April 2024, Labour’s shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh MP set out the party’s plans for a better bus network across England, with a promise— "to allow every community across the country to take back control of local bus services"—and specifically cited London as a model;​
• In the words of former TfL Board Director and Safety Panel Chair Michael Liebreich, TfL's Bus Franchise Model is "Institutionally Unsafe";​
• Since 2007, TfL's own published data shows that—year-on-year—London buses have accounted for 10% of all of London's road fatalities and about 10% of all pedestrian fatalities in London despite Buses' presence on the road over this period having declined from constituting about 3% to about 1% of all vehicles on the road at any given time;​
• TfL’s sole measure of bus contract performance is a time-based “Excess Waiting Time” calculation which Independent benchmarking shows London—​
  • in the highest tercile of its ‘world city’ peers for Bus Punctuality and Profitability per Bus;​
  • in lowest tercile of its ‘world city’ peers for safety (collisions per km): based on this published independent annual benchmark data, London appears to have the least safe bus system of any major European city;​
• TfL has never conducted a safety risk assessment of the Bus Franchise Model or its Bus Contract Financial Incentives;​
• 1 in 5 of the London Bus Drivers surveyed by Loughborough University (2017) indicated that they had to fight sleepiness at least 2-3 times a week, and about 1 in 4 had a ‘close call’ due to fatigue in the past 12 months;​
• For decades, TfL's contracted Bus Operation has averaged over 26,000 Bus collisions annually—in 2023, TfL recorded over 28,000—from which​
  • about 1200 people are injured every year;​
  • 1 person is killed about every six weeks; ​
  • 80 to 100 people are sent to hospital every month from Preventable Bus Safety Incidents (80% Collisions, 20% Onboard Trips & Falls), over 20 of these victims with serious and/or life-changing injuries;​
• Over one quarter of London Bus Routes don’t have a toilet for Bus Drivers at one end of the route;​
• TfL has agreed with Bus Operators and Unite the Union that Bus Drivers don’t need a toilet on any route round trip that lasts up to 150 minutes — this 'criteria' was agreed without a Human Factors or Risk Assessment;​
• TfL has evidence of (at least) 12 million (est.) Annual Bus Speeding incidents on file that it does not share with the Police;​
• Since January 2016, more than 1 pedestrian per month has been injured by a TfL Bus hitting them in a zebra or pelican crossing; ​
• Since 1 April 2015, an average of 6 people per month (2022-23: 8 per month- getting worse) have been injured after being struck by a Bus Wing Mirror;​
• TfL received the highest Health & Safety Fine ever in July 2023 for HSE Failures on the Croydon Tram, a contracted surface transport operation that was founded, managed and monitored by TfL's Bus executives;​
• Transport for London (TfL) does not require the bus operating companies to share copies of their risk assessments covering activities within their garage environments. This includes any that were created or updated as a result of Covid-19.​
• despite the facts that—​
  • the total number of bus miles in London has declined;​
  • the total number of bus users in London has declined;​
  • the total number of buses in London’s contracted bus fleet has declined;​
  • the total number of Bus Drivers in London has declined, and, ​
  • since 2016, the Mayor of London has announced 3 ‘world leading’ Bus Safety Programmes and a Vision Zero Programme;​

—the number of people killed and seriously injured from Bus Safety Incidents are now higher than 2016. ​

​

To get ahead of the national press and Westminster, I would strongly advise you urgently to lead the Transport Committee to build upon the evidence and conclusions found in the London Assembly's March 2024 "Bus, Tram and Tube Safety" Investigation and perhaps focus on three specific areas highlighted in Appendix 1 of that investigation— ​

• The Contradiction between TfL's Bus Contract Timeliness Incentives and Speed Limits;​
• TfL's Refusal to Require Independent Bus Crash Investigations;​
• TfL's Failure to conduct Risk and/or Human Factors Assessments of Bus Driver Working Conditions that are known to have a direct impact upon Safety Performance;​

—which will no doubt be the focus of national press and Westminster scrutiny in the coming weeks after the new Government's promised "Better Buses" Bill is submitted to Parliament for consideration.

If you choose to lead such an urgent investigation as Chair of the London Assembly Transport Committee, kindly note that I will, once again, be pleased to contribute evidence as a veteran London Bus Driver. If you choose not to lead such an investigation, then those who inevitably will do so can find my open letter on the public record.
​

Yours sincerely,

Lorraine Robertson
London Bus Driver (Retired)

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Source: https://saferoxfordstreet.blogspot.com/2024/06/re-assisting-inevitable-independent.html
Auto-imported from Tom Kearney’s blog.