Fans of the bendy bus, be of good cheer. The voice of London's transport users, TravelWatch, has concluded there is no case for scrapping bendy buses on some of our busiest routes after its public meeting last week. The 38, 507 and 521 bendy buses are in jeopardy following Boris and TFL chums' consultation over their articulated future, seeking to fulfill the reckless election promise of binning the bendies. But TravelWatch took a fine......

Boris Johnson this morning unveiled a mock-up of the new "S" stock trains being constructed for the Metropolitan, Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines. Boasting more spacious interiors and easier movement between carriages, the main bragging point is that the trains will feature air conditioning, a first for the Underground. Sweltering Victoria line commuters, don't get your hopes up - these shallow, cut-and-cover lines make a/c much easier, though TfL claims to be working......

Today is not a good day for travelling on many levels. Firstly, forget your romantic weekend in Paris, Eurostar won't be running any trains today following yesterday's freight train fire in the Channel Tunnel. St Pancras is likely to be chocka full of disgruntled passengers so we say steer clear and check Eurostar's website for more information. Secondly, First Bus are striking over pay again so check with TFL before you leave for work to......

After the usual screams of anguish from the Evening Standard editorials have died away there are some more ominous signs in last week's traditional September bundle of joy: the TfL new year fare package. "Tough choices around some unfunded transport projects" are to be made, and politics aside, Recessionist sees little light, and quite possibly fewer trains, in the tunnel ahead... 'Tough choices' - have been responsible for many of the irritating abnormalities of......

From tomorrow, watch out for brand new poster art works, inspired by the ubiquitous tube roundel, which is celebrating its 100th birthday, on a platform near you. The posters are teasers to tempt you to an exhibition of 100 new roundel artworks at the Rochelle School in Shoreditch, where we told you to go and see the Le Gun thing, between 8-30 October.......

Trouble brewing in Tower Hamlets: Muslim councillors have asked other councillors to alter meetings around Ramadan fast breaking. Um, and the other councillors ain’t happy. A shark-loving performance artist was strung up on fish hooks today to draw attention to the plight of the creatures and the practice of de-finning. A tube traveller has received some rather uncomfortable injuries having sat in a pool of acidic cleaning fluid: TfL will presumably get to the......

Boris may have dumped Oyster operator TranSys last month, but back in November they and TfL were playing nice and managed to put together an Oyster phone trial. The "Oyster Wallet", a pimped-out Nokia handset that could be used to pay for tube journeys and small purchases, was handed out to 500 Londoners for a six month period. The trial concluded this week, and early word is that it was a success. 89% said they'd......

Like a schoolboy clutching a scrap of dog-chewed homework after he's already flunked the course, the London Overground, which despite a change of name and snazzy new livery has failed to improve much, will for the remainder of 2008 have a convenient excuse for its habitual awfulness. Parts of the network are being suspended to allow engineering works and track upgrades to be performed. The closures will run as follows: Gospel Oak to Willesden......

You wait ages for a story about Transport for London (TfL), and then loads come along at once. After the earth-shattering news that TfL staff sometimes use taxis (*clutch at pearls*), and heaps of other problems, today they lost a case in court as a customer successfully had his fare evasion conviction quashed. He argued that customers should have been instructed to hear the correct beep and see the green LED light flash in......

Bearing in mind the revelation last year that a single GLA member racked up a staggering £10,000 taxi bill in a year we're rather puzzled why senior bosses at Transport For London are causing gripe when they've only managed to spend around £1,500 on cabs in the same time period. TFL Chief, Peter Hendy, is fingered here for spending about £29 a week of taxpayers' money on Hackney Carriages but realistically that could well......

Maintenance workers for Tube Lines are planning a series of strikes for higher wages. The maintenance workers are concerned by the 4.95% pay rise they were offered over the next two years, given that those employed by Metronet are getting a better deal. Two 72-hour strikes are planned to start on the 20th (next Wednesday) and 3 September, both at noon. Expect complications on the Northern, Jubilee, and Piccadilly lines. Meanwhile, the Tube cleaners network-wide......

It's amazing what a lick of paint and better lighting can do. Apparently, the redesigned entrance to Shadwell DLR station, countering its previous dark and dingy reputation, has made 75% of local residents feel safer using it and there has been "just one crime at the station since the revamp in May, but there were six crimes there between May and June last year, according to British Transport Police figures". The main thrust of......

Thames Water chase quick buck with luxury flats over super sewer Penny pinching Boris takes early break from Transys, the original Oyster operators, to find cheaper alternative Stop and search at Climate Camp causes consternation The Evening Standard unreservedly apologises to Prince Phillip over prostate cancer story Yum, yum: there's a Thai food festival in Greenwich Park this weekend Image courtesy of Stu_Egan via the Londonist flickr group.......

Hmm. Black cab fares look set to rise. Not good. TfL have gotten themselves into a bit of a parking pickle. You’ve got to hand it to Croydon: for all the bad press, they’ve got lofty city aspirations. Londoners really do have to wait longer to see their GPs – it’s not just your imagination. A very expensive calculator has been saved for the nation. Green machines have been showing us what they’re made......

Crossrail as a concept seems to have been around for yonks yet this week, stuff actually starts happening around the crucial and much needed redevelopment of Tottenham Court Road station with bus diversions kicking in on Friday to make way for works to begin. A free exhibition at New London Architecture brings the ambitious plans to life with a computer generated 'fly through' of the transformed station, incorporating not only essential expansion of capacity......

For the second time in a fortnight, a major fault has crippled the Oyster system. A "technical problem" is currently afflicting Pay As You Go cards on the Tube, say TfL, who have wisely decided to leave all Underground station barriers open until the problem is solved. Coming barely two weeks after a fault left tens of thousands of cards corrupted, and mere days after it was confirmed Dutch researchers would be allowed to publish......

Tolerance, cultural diversity, liberal attitude… none of these are concepts traditionally linked with London’s black cab drivers. But new figures released by TFL reveal that a drive to recruit more cabbies from ethnic minorities has been a great success – with a third of current applicants for The Knowledge coming from a black, Asian or other ethnic background. This new, multicultural taxi force is the result of a prolonged campaign by TFL to attract......

Linguistic London: apparently even Maori is flourishing here. It would seem that Poles wanting to learn English are being told that we still love talking about the weather. The Dark Knight is having a bit a dark hour here in London, with his arrest on suspicion of assault. Boris doesn’t approve of positive discrimination. Special play booths for hypochondriacs are being installed in Newham. There’s to be no more ignoring of them old parking......

Taking environmental concerns to the heart of their big day, betrothed greenies, Stefanie and Robert, will be taking their last journey as single people by tube. The celebratory Jubilee Line will be ferrying them from Dollis Hill to Baker Street on Saturday afternoon to get sustainably hitched with a reusable dress, organic wedding cake and a second-hand ring. So stick a handful of recycled confetti in your pocket in you're riding the wedding line......

Whilst we're none too happy about the new tube ads we're completely charmed that public transport advertising can have a positive, life changing outcome. Baby Katy might not have been born were it not for her parents-to-be investing £2000 in bus ads, asking for an egg donor. We're equally charmed that some young woman saw these on her way to work one day and decided that she could help - anonymously - just because......

As of today, giant cinema-style screens have been installed opposite platforms at Piccadilly Circus, Euston, Bank, Liverpool Street and Bond Street stations to bombard you with cutting-edge advertising intended to 'enhance' your journey. The system, called XTP, is centrally controlled so that advertising folk can decide what you need to see at different times of the day: commute to work with Sky News, get out to lunch with the trailer for Kung-Fu Panda and......

Those slightly addle-eyed folk who rant about Government conspiracies, claim that we're all microchipped at birth and believe the Oyster card is a sinister scheme to track our movements may be feeling a little righteous today: Transport for London has been criticised for "collecting data without a clear purpose" when asking kids to fill in an application form for their free Travelcard. Since June, kids looking to jump on the bus or tube have......

It's definitely that time of year. Heatbuster ads have been on the tubes for at least 6 weeks and those announcements about carrying a bottle of water with you (too late once you're in the bowels of the platforms) are resonating blandly on a regular basis. So, it's time for TfL's latest wheeze to cool the Underground down. Cue: GIANT FANS! Genius. Around 40 portable industrial fans will be introduced at key stations to......

Eye witnesses report a massive fire on a railway bridge over Stratford station. People on the platforms are seeing flames and smoke from only a metres away down the track. Apparently nothing going in or out of Stratford Overground but TfL haven't caught up with this on their website yet. We will have updates and pictures from eye witness soon. Also, unrelated, Mile End station is currently closed due to a person under a......

The East London Line may at present be a relatively small stretch of track, but for residents of New Cross Gate it’s becoming a pretty big problem. Closed for extension work until 2010, the line, which previously ran from Whitechapel to New Cross Gate, is reportedly causing interior damage to houses in the latter area. Kirsten Downer, a resident who lives near to the tracks, says there are “cracks in the walls” of her......

There's finally been a nice stretch of weather, but if you still need that final push to get out on your bicycle then this weekend is the end of your excuses: Bike Week 2008 kicks off Saturday 14 June until the 22nd with lots of fun for two-wheelers. Events span bike inspections for those of you that have let your rides get a little rusty, workshops for those adjusting to cycling around London, as......

Just a heads up that National Express East Anglia services are still disrupted and running a reduced service into Liverpool Street station due to overhead power cables which collapsed onto the line on Monday evening. Ironically, £150m worth of work on renewing overhead power cables between London and Chelmsford was begun by Network Rail earlier this year with a finish date projected for 2012 (like everything else). The line is expected to be back to......

Those good people at Friction TV sent us this video of Saturday night's drinking party on the tube. Our Nice Liz's experience was "safe and fun". This footage shows another side to the evening. We didn't even make it onto the tube because we were tardy and the stations were shut by the time we rocked up with a bottle of wine and our party frocks. Were you there? What was your experience? embededPlayer(3231, 3546,......

This weekend column is brought to you by the founders of Niceties Tokens, Liz and Pete of Team Nice. 47. Last Orders As soon as Boris announced the ban of drinking on public transport, it felt like everyone had the same idea of a drinking party on the tube. The more organised of us set up Facebook events, and the most popular of these parties self-propelled their numbers into the thousands, till everyone knew......

Whether seasoned alcoholic, pre-big-night-out-prepper or civilised imbiber of post work ale tomorrow's your last chance to legally sup an alcoholic beverage on the tube, DLR or buses. The minute our new Mayor announced this, Facebook groups started springing up with the inevitably super idea of Underground parties to mark the momentous passing of public transport subterranean boozing. They soon morphed into one big Circle line shebang comprising a gentrified cocktail party (elegant dress preferred)......