TFL to cut London bus conductor jobs on new Routemasters

Seeing red: Angry union bosses have demanded promises the workers will be found new jobs
Sebastian Mann12 July 2016

Hundreds of bus conductors are set to lose their jobs as part of a £10 million a year savings drive.

Six bus routes served by the new Routemasters introduced under Boris Johnson mayoralty will run in future without conductors, Transport for London said.

A total of 350 personnel who only make a “modest” difference to the satisfaction of passengers on board, are facing the axe, according to TfL.

Unions claimed as many as 400 jobs were under threat.

Leon Daniels, TfL's Managing Director of Surface Transport, said: "The conductors on these routes have done a great job, but the New Routemaster routes that don't have conductors also operate very effectively and we can no longer justify the £10m of extra costs that could otherwise be invested in modernising the transport network.

"We are now working with the bus companies to find conductors other opportunities within the transport industry so they can continue to play a part in keeping London moving."

Conductors operate on the new style London buses, which feature a hop-on hop-off option at the back of the vehicle. Nineteen routes served by the buses already run without them.

Unite regional secretary for London, Pete Kavanagh, said: "London buses are a success story and the network looks ready to expand with an increasing population - therefore, there should be plenty of jobs available for the 400 conductors.

"There is no way that these conductors should be made the scapegoats because of the vanity project of Boris Johnson when he was mayor.”

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