A new fixed fare taxi

service from the West End designed to boost the number of black cabs and

help revellers get home safely has proved a resounding success

following its first weekend trial – taking on more than 500 trips over

two nights.

The Golden Fares scheme, which aims to give visitors to

central London an accessible, easy to use and safe way of travelling

home late at night and into the early hours on Fridays and Saturdays,

and encourage revellers not to be tempted by touts, offers fixed fares

to four London zones.

Operating

from Leicester Square 10pm-4am on Friday and Saturday nights,

passengers  pay a fixed price up front to travel to the zones stretching

as far as from Redbridge to Richmond and Croydon to Copthall, with the

most expensive fare being £50, and the cheapest £20.

But due to its

popularity more marshalls are required, and the London Taxi Drivers’

Association, which funds and provides marshalls for the scheme, is

suspending the remainder of the four weekend long trial until the end of

January.

Licensed Taxi

Drivers’ Association General Secretary Bob Oddy said: “The first weekend

trial was a huge success, and  surpassed all expectations. It is clear

from the huge demand on both nights there is  an appetite for the Golden

Fares service, but just managing this is going to require substantially

more manpower and costs than we envisaged.

"Given this we plan to

delay resuming the final three weekends of the trial until the end of

January, when hopefully we will have resolved those issues. It will also

make more sense to offer it at around the time of next pay day at the

end of January as most of us are tend to cut down their outings after

the new year. We feel there will be demand for the service from the end

of that month heading into Valentine’s Day, and we look forward to

getting more people home safely through the scheme then."

Westminster council’s city

commissioner of transportation, Martin Low, who came up with the idea

for the Golden Fares scheme, added: “Taxi drivers responded brilliantly

to this new scheme, and turned up to Leicester Square in their droves.

The demand was phenomenal, and although it was one of the busiest nights

of the year anyway, I do think if we get it running permanently, as

more people hear of the scheme it will become even more used.

“But

what we also want to do is combine the Golden Fares with an operation to

clamp down on the touts, and also we tackle any touts trying to take

advantage of the Coventry Street rank when Golden Fares is not in

operation.”

The next three

weekends of the scheme will run on the following dates. A decision on

whether to extend it further will be made at the end of the fourth

weekend in mid February. 

John

Mason, Director of Taxi and Private Hire at Transport for London:

"The

first weekend of the Golden Fares scheme was a complete success and was

fully embraced by passengers and drivers alike. We hope the remaining

three weeks of the trial continue in this vein and the scheme becomes a

permanent option for passengers".