Mayhem at Brighton Station as taxi rank closedThere was chaos outside Brighton station yesterday morning when the taxi rank was shut.
Southern decided to close the rank from 5am in preparation for the Lewes bonfire celebration last night.
But taxi drivers claimed they were not told, leading to traffic chaos in Queen’s Road as passengers were picked up and dropped off.
Tony Gilbert, who has been driving taxis in the city for 23 years, described it as “hours of mayhem”.
He added: “No one knew what was going on. We could not drop people off and passengers were coming out of the station wondering how to get a taxi.
“There were a lot of disgruntled people. A man from the council came and told us we could double park in Queen’s Road.”
Mr Gilbert said he could not understand why the rank was closed from 5am when the event was not until the evening.
Southern insisted it had informed the council and taxi representatives on October 19 that the closure would take place.
Risk assessment A spokesman said: “The decision was taken after a safety risk assessment was carried out and the measures are being taken because the Lewes bonfire event is taking place on a week day, rather than a weekend.
“It means that in addition to bonfire-goers, we have our usual complement of commuters which would have likely led to overcrowding at the front of the station.”
A council spokesman said: “Southern closed their rank for 24 hours for reasons relating to the Lewes bonfire festivities. We were not given prior warning of this.
“The rank is on their land – so it was fundamentally a matter between Southern and the drivers they’ve issued permits to. But it made things very difficult for residents, visitors and the local taxi trade.”
http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10028483 ... nk_closed/
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