STATION STIRRINGS
TUNBRIDGE WELLS TAXI DRIVERS’ ANGER AT RAILWAY STATION RANK CLOSURE
Tunbridge Wells taxi drivers have voiced their anger at the clo- sure of the station rank which they claim has caused a 60 per cent drop in their profits. Sixty hackney car- riages have been forced out of the offi- cial rank in Mount Pleasant which is owned by Southeast- ern while the rail company carries out £1 million improve- ments to the station. Angry cabbies say they were not consulted on the plans to fence off the spaces which have forced them to queue up in Station Approach while building work is carried out.
Southeastern spokesman John Hay- Campbell said it was necessary to keep the rank fenced off for
available space. He said drivers could ‘feed’ into the rank from Mount Pleasant Avenue.
From left, Robin Rae, Paul Gerty, Clayton Berry and Dave Fogel
health and safety rea- sons and to store building equipment. However, taxi driver Dave Fogel has requested a meeting with the rail company and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council “on behalf of the hackney carriage community” to discuss reopening the area. Mr Fogel told the Kent and Sussex Courier: “At the moment we are
working in a recession and family men have had their livelihoods cut by half. There was no warning at all or consultation from Southeastern. We are providing a service for their passengers. It’s a two-way street.” Mr Fogel is proposing the barriers are removed so when workmen finished at 4pm each day drivers can line up in the
Driver Andrew Miller agreed that the situa- tion was unbelievable. “We are losing about 60 per cent of our business since they put us round the other side.” “We have all stuck together but I think now because some of them are not earning money they might break ranks.”
Mr Hay-Campbell said a Southeastern repre- sentative had attended a meeting of the public transport forum last month Southeastern and the drivers can clear this matter up effectively for the benefit of local taxi users.”
PRESTON CABBIES THREATEN STRIKE
A bitter row over park- ing for taxi drivers at Preston railway sta- tion has reignited. Cabbies have said they will strike if Virgin Trains sticks to plans to limit them to just 12 rank spaces at the station.
They claim the move is a U-turn on a prom- ise made a year ago that they would return to having unlimited spaces when work was completed on the station’s new car park, which opened last month. Talks between Virgin and the Preston Hack- ney Carriage Association (PHCA) will take place to find an alternative with a new feeder rank close to the car park being considered. One driver, from Aven-
ham, said they paid £300 a year for dri- ver’s permits to rank at the station which were now “absolutely worthless”.
He told the Preston Evening News: “Virgin has no problem tak- ing money off us; they promised we would be allowed back in when the car park was finished and now they have gone back on it. “If they do not want us, we will leave at once and that will mean their customers will have no-one to get them home.” A spokesman tor Vir- gin trains said the new system had cre- ated “a more organised and clean- er” service which benefited both the drivers and cus- tomers alike.
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