Proposals to axe the C2 bus route ‘conflict with Transport for London’s own policies’

• TRANSPORT for London’s proposal to axe the C2 bus route appears to be in conflict with its own policies, (Save the C2 bus!, August 16).

Alongside the C2 consultation, the TfL website is running a separate consultation on a proposal to scrap the current Congestion Charge exemption for private hire vehicles – Uber and minicabs – as part of a policy to reduce vehicle movements and pollution in central London by making journeys more expensive.

Doesn’t scrapping a bus route completely undermine this aim, since constant cuts to affordable public transport inevitably encourages greater use of private cars and minicabs?

The GLA and central government’s failure to control Uber has led to a meteoric rise in the number of private hire vehicles, a problem TfL is only now trying to deal with by using “market forces”, rather than legislation, to limit the congestion and pollution they cause.

The C2 works in tandem with the 88 to provide two comprehensive and convenient alternative routes between Camden and the West End.

If TfL really wants to lessen the impact of thousands of cars carrying one, two, or three people, surely the answer is to increase the number of bus routes (and even restore the truncated section of C2 from Oxford Circus to Victoria), rather than inflict less-frequent and more overcrowded services – with appallingly badly air-conditioned vehicles – on passengers?

DON KELLER
Address supplied