Taxi Driver Online

Obviously nothing new about this particular theme, but can't remember if this car park has been featured before, and can't be bothered looking back


The East London car park that's becoming a graveyard for abandoned taxis

https://www.mylondon.news/news/east-lon ... s-22605042

The upper floors of a car park have become a graveyard for the cabs no longer in use


Image: MyLondon/Kaci Lynn

I recently asked a black cabbie if he had an old copy of Taxi magazine lying around.

They usually do, but this one said he didn’t read it anymore because of the “constant doom and gloom”.

“Oh you should pick it up again!” I said, “It’s got much more chipper now that Uber’s tanking!”


Image: MyLondon/Kaci Lynn

But it’s not all good news for the traditional London black cab, a fact that becomes startlingly clear when you see the upper floors of the Citi Park car park on Clements Road, Ilford, which have become a graveyard for the cabs no longer in use.

It’s an eerie sight, and an uncomfortable one for many Londoners, who hold the black cab in their minds as a kind of icon of the city.

To see them lined up, sunken on flat tyres, with smashed windows and the odd wing mirror dangling, is unnerving and sad.

It’s rather a good-news-bad-news situation - the demand for cabs first fell in 2020 when we were, of course, confined to our homes.


Image: MyLondon/Kaci Lynn

It was a hideous drop - to around 20 per cent, according to the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association (LTDA).

But as things opened up, London’s priorities changed at a policy level: the government decided it was time to make a real go of giving Londoners cleaner air to breathe.

The Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ), was planned by Boris Johnson and introduced by Sadiq Khan in April 2019.

Until October 2021 it was confined to Central London - and resulted in a 20 per cent drop in emissions - but now extends to all areas within the North and South Circulars.


Image: MyLondon/Kaci Lynn

However, this means vehicles must either meet the standards or pay a charge of £12.50 per day - and most vehicles built before 2015 would fail to meet the standards.

The number plates on the cars in the Ilford car park show that most of the taxis there don’t meet the standards, which perhaps explains why they have been left in the graveyard.

It’s a tough one to call - cleaner air is always a plus, but it’s a strange and melancholy sight; the ghosts of London past, lined up in a car park, so far from home.

Perhaps that cabbie should hold off on picking up a copy of Taxi for now - we're not quite out of the woods yet.

First paragraph makes it sound like it was all planned during lockdown, but second paragraph confirms what we all know - it wasn't really anything to do with lockdown, and the timing purely coincidental.

Anyway, funny journalist who seems to know the contents of the LTDA's Taxi magazine better than the actual black cab drivers

I wonder if some enterprising soul will ship this lot up to Blackpool or Derby !

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Yes it has lazy bones.

_________________
IDFIMH

Useful article


'I went to the East London taxi graveyard and couldn't believe all the abandoned cars had mysteriously vanished'

https://www.mylondon.news/news/east-lon ... i-23007334

Where did the taxis from the taxi graveyard go? Did they go to taxi heaven, or were they resurrected and are back on London’s streets?

When I was a kid, I was frequently told to stop being nosey - lucky for me, there was a profession waiting for me. As a journalist, I am nosey for a living so that you can all be polite - but still know what’s going on.

This week, I’ve been tugging at sleeves trying to find out how and why the “taxi graveyard” in Ilford has been emptied of taxis. The CitiPark on Clements Road made headlines several times in 2021 because the top floors were crowded with old London black cabs - and while there were a few theories as to why, articles were filled with, essentially, what people reckoned.

I went back there last week with my trusty sidekick - a spaniel called Ludo - and he got a really good runaround because the taxis were nowhere to be seen.

And I, nosey-parker-for-a-living that I am, have some questions.

Where did the taxis from the taxi graveyard go? Did they go to taxi heaven, or were they resurrected and are back on London’s streets? When did they go? And what was the trigger - did the rental contract run out? Did they all go on the same day?

And can I get a definitive answer on why they were there in the first place? Was it because passenger numbers fell by around 80 per cent during Covid, so they were there while we waited for it all to blow over?

Or was it - as many of the number plates in the graveyard suggested - because they were built too early to qualify for ULEZ regulations, and therefore were abandoned?

I called the CitiPark number, and spoke to an employee who was based in Leeds. She referred me to an enquiries team, who I emailed, asking where the taxis had gone, why they were there in the first place, and whether there would be any more arriving.

A prompt and professional reply came quite quickly, from a woman who let me know she had passed it onto management for comment, but also let me know what she reckoned, “as far as I'm aware, they were stored over Covid due to not being used and now they are back in service”.

“Thanks!” I replied, and then, like the irritating, nosey mosquito that I am, continued, “As I recall a lot of the taxis had windows smashed, tyres let down, wing mirrors removed etc - I'd be surprised if they were back on the road now, though I suppose they just needed doing up. Also most of the number plates showed they would have to pay the daily ULEZ rate - would be great to know for sure what happened to them. Many thanks for passing on!”

CitiPark did respond again, and simply clarified: "the car park manager has confirmed that all taxis have been removed from the car park" - and suggested contacting the taxi firm directly.

Then, I turned to the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA), to see if they knew what became of the taxi graveyard. But they did not know anything about the taxi graveyard either.

So the mystery continues, and I’m done with hearing what people reckon: do you, reader, have any idea what happened to the taxis in the Clements Road CitiPark? Are they repaired and back on the road, or were they crushed or stripped for parts?

Do tell. I’m nosey for a living.