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• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

I want to focus on the North London Line, which is absolutely important for London but also crucial for the constituency I represent, Hackney, Islington and Waltham Forest. If we just look at the Hackney and Islington part of it, you can see why we welcome the ambitions and the funding that are being proposed for the North London Line. Can you repeat what you were saying about your meeting with the Department for Transport? Are you saying that you were discussing a plan B, for instance, if the Railway Bill does not make it? What sort of timescales were...

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

With the North London Line, if you were just able to extend the platform that would give us longer trains and you would then be able to deal with the overcrowding.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

If I can go back to Silverlink for a moment, the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), as was, rejected the proposal of a commuter rail authority. Your priorities, or the benefits you saw were things like greater efficiency, more frequent services, integrating fares using Oyster and better station facilities. If you do get Silverlink Metro, how many of those benefits would we see soon? The Islington stations, for instance, on the North London Line desperately need modernising and to be made safer for passengers. The same can be said at Queens Park Station on the Watford line. You say you are...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

Then it seems we can be optimistic. What about the upgrade of the stations in Queens Park on the Watford line and the Islington stations on the North London Line because they are critical in those negotiations? Can you give any assurance on that?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

I think it was March 2004 when you launched TfL's bid for a London Regional Rail Authority, which the Liberal Democrats support. If I were to ask you for a progress report on the extent of the negotiations so far with Silverlink - How far has the agenda reached and what discussions are taking place?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

Continuing with the theme that they will do the right thing, which we hope they will, what benefits will my constituents, who rely on the North London Line, be able to see once TfL takes responsibility for this part of the network? Can you re-affirm your commitment to the 'turn-up-and-go' way of operating that I read was one of your ambitions?

• Question by: Jennette Arnold OBE
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

You told us earlier about the constraints of funding and how much the infrastructure improvement is dependent on that, which I think we all understand. However, in terms of raising future revenues, do you agree with the quote in the Evening Standard, a couple of days ago I think, from your board colleague, Professor Stephen Glaister that, `In future years Congesting Charging has to be a key revenue generator'?

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

£1.6 million in external legal costs is the cost that has come from the Freedom of Information Act request that the Liberal Democrats put to you. These are the legal costs for fighting the PPP originally. I was shoulder to shoulder with the Mayor and you and we were all against the PPP as being unworkable, but this reference by Roger Evans is the first peep, quite frankly, out of the Mayor towards his now chums in the Labour Party that there is anything amiss. Do you really think it is worth waiting until the end of the year? It...

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

I think it is so serious when bailiffs arrive that actually if you get letters from people saying, `But I never got the notices' and have business accounts departments that would normally handle them, you really have to do something about the system right now and say that any of these cases are to be an exception and should go to some sort of forum where they are looked at. To have bailiffs arrive is really unacceptable when the fault may be TfL's.

• Question by: Lynne Featherstone
• Meeting date: 06 April 2005

I just want to support Elizabeth (Howlett) because I had not realised there were other cases of bailiffs arriving. I have just written to TfL about several where no previous notice has been received. TfL writes to these people and says that penalty notices, etc., were issued, but they were not. You have to take this really seriously because some people are not able to go to court; they are vulnerable and scared and may not have the money. This is terrifying people. They are individual cases, not hundreds of them, but I do want your double assurance that you...