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Originally Posted by Stuart
I dunno, Boris has done a fairly good job of promoting London as an excellent venue for business. So much so that a few multinationals (e.g. HSBC ) have their world headquarters here.
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These multinationals were based in London before Boris arrived. I am not sure why he gets the credit for it. HSBC have been there for years.
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On a smaller scale, he has also managed to get the train companies to agree to take Oyster cards, and managed to get TFL to seriously look at Air Conditioning on the tube. Both things that Ken promised, but failed to achieve.
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That is really unfair. It takes time to get air-conditioned trains built and you can't simply credit Boris Johnson because he was in charge when they started to rollout. It's also unfair to say Ken failed to achieve it because he was voted out before their introduction. He was still the one to
commission them. Also it's not as if they missed their target by much.
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Originally Posted by Stuart
Boris has also managed to get TFL looking seriously at expanding travel options south of the river, by extending tube lines, tram lines or DLR lines. Something which Ken, TBF, didn't even promise, only really being interested in the areas North of the river, despite a lot of potential voters living South of the river.
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Crossrail 2 has been in consideration for a while. It's not moved ahead any further than consultation though so until Boris secures funding for it/gives it the go-ahead then it's just theoretical. Livingstone did actually get Crossrail 1 moving along with the Government at the time. That's more of an achievement that 'looking at it'. Crossrail 2 has had routes reserved since 2001. It's still not been seriously lobbied for yet.
Boris' achievements as Mayor have been modest. He has been a competent Mayor, for the most part, who has seen though or expended existing projects (Olympics, Crossrail, the Bike Scheme, Oyster cards and the TFL upgrade program) and also got those new buses but his legacy won't be as lasting as that of Livingstone who initiated most of those schemes for which you're now (along with Tory supporters) crediting to Boris.