Taxi Driver Online

Cumbrian taxi drivers claim floods aftermath could force them out of business

Taxi drivers fear Workington’s floods travel nightmare could force them off the roads and out of business. They say trade has plunged to an all-time low because of the massive detours needed to get from one side of the River Derwent to the other.

Journey times have lengthened since the collapse of the Northside Bridge and closure of the stricken Calva crossing during last month’s floods. Cabbies say people are now walking across the Derwent using a temporary footbridge, catching a bus or train – or not going into Workington town centre.

All of that would avoid the need to pay a £40 taxi fare for a journey that would once have cost just £5. At what should be their busiest time of the year, taxi firm bosses say they are struggling to make ends meet – with some £500-a-week out of pocket.

Steven Robinson, owner of S & S Taxis, fears he could lose his business if trade does not improve and a new road bridge opened quickly. He said: “To be honest, if I have to wait until the end of May for a road bridge to be put up, I could seriously be thinking that I can’t survive like this.”

The former Workington Taxi Association chairman fears that if it takes months for a temporary road bridge to be built across the Derwent, people living on the north side of the river will get used to going out elsewhere and will not return to the town centre.

“People are creatures of habit and the longer it goes on they will get used to doing it. We need a bridge as soon as possible, he added. “January and February are always quiet and whatever we make at Christmas and New Year we usually live on it. But we won’t be doing it this year.”

Some firms are asking people who do want taken to the other side of the river to give them cash up-front for fear of them fleeing when they get to the other side and realise the price.

Kate Birkett, of Seaton’s Jack’s Taxi, has been in the business for 10 years and said this Christmas had been the worst. She said that if people walk across the Barker Crossing footbridge to the north side of the river and ask for a taxi to Northside, they are still facing a £14 fare because of the road restrictions and diversions.

Mrs Birkett added that on the first weekend after the floods she had no business, followed by very little during the second. “People are not prepared to pay £28 to get into Workington – who would blame them? They’re either walking or just not going,” she said.

One Seaton taxi firm has even rented premises in Workington centre to keep the vehicles because it is busier on that side of the Derwent.

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