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Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Undoing London

posted by on May 7 at 8:48 AM

Livingstone is gone. Boris the bore is in. Let the banning begin!
tube460-1.jpg Number one: No more booze on the tubes.

Born with the ban is one big problem:

Labour’s London assembly transport spokeswoman, Val Shawcross, said: “There is a broad consensus of support for a public-transport alcohol ban but it will be extremely difficult to enforce.

“If the mayor is expecting tube and bus staff to confiscate people’s drinks then they are effectively being forced into a policing role for which they are not trained.

“We need to get any ban right and not compromise the safety of staff and passengers. It does not bode well that the new mayor has jumped ahead with this pledge without first talking to those who are being asked to police it.”

RSS icon Comments

1

I take the subway to work in NYC every day. I am glad booze is banned. Subway commutes are already bad enough. Being locked in a metal tube with an obnoxious drunk is not pleasant.

Posted by Mike | May 7, 2008 9:08 AM
2

i remember when boris was on never mind the buzzcocks, he wasn't that funny

Posted by Jiberish | May 7, 2008 9:11 AM
3

That's not completely unreasonable as a goal... implementation will be a bitch though.

Posted by Art | May 7, 2008 9:18 AM
4

Hell, they should be selling booze on the tubes. They're missing out on a great source of extra revenue.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | May 7, 2008 9:20 AM
5

I wouldn't want to confiscate a drink from an angry English drunk either.

Posted by keshmeshi | May 7, 2008 10:08 AM
6

The tube is about the only thing that the Mayor of London gets to actually have anything to do with, so it's not exactly a terrifying prospect. He's an amiable shithead, sort of like the last guy. Booze on the tube is a exceptionally minor issue; it's not THAT common.

Posted by Fnarf | May 7, 2008 10:27 AM
7

I remember Ken joking that he would put a buffet car on Circle line trains so everyone could go round and round (and round) getting sloshed...

It's a nice idea but who the hell's going to actually take the booze off people? The only time there's any actual staff on the tube platforms is during rush hour. Drivers are too busy driving the darn train, and you almost never see a ticket inspector down there.

Perhaps there will be new transport safety officers employed (which would be, actually, quite cool) or (more likely) it will be a toothless mess.

Posted by fluffyyBunny | May 8, 2008 2:59 AM

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