WOLVERHAMPTON

Angry taxi drivers claim Wolverhampton railway station's "poorly designed" access road will lead to fatalities unless the council urgently acts.

Drivers are reporting that collisions, heated exchanges and long queues are a regular occurrence due to congestion caused by the road layout.

The station's access road, which features a taxi drop-off and collection point, was redesigned two-years-ago as part of an ongoing £130 million revamp of the station.

But despite raising concerns back then, Wolverhampton councillor Paul Singh said: "These problems are still happening now.

"They are caused by a bad road layout which is a clear design fault.

"Passengers in taxis open out doors into the road, and doors get knocked off every other day. There is an accident here every other day. And the drivers will back that up."

The concerns are that the access road is too narrow, it has sharp and hazardous edges on curbstones, and the drop-off point and collection point endangers passengers and drivers.

The new road entrance is accessed through Corn Hill and it opened on January 8, 2017. The former access road was Railway Drive which closed to the public.

Drivers claim to have raised the matter with Wolverhampton Council bosses but they say no-one is listening to them.

Taxi driver Parminder Singh, who is chairman of Wolverhampton's taxi association, said: "The volume of traffic far exceeds what the access road can handle. Whoever planned it didn't do the job properly.

"When the congestion takes place, everyone gets irate and it kicks off. No one can get in and no one can get out.

"Taxi drivers get abuse. Three or four weeks ago, a traffic marshall from the council got attacked by an irate member of the public.

"The system also makes it dangerous for passengers and pedestrians using the access road. This needs urgently looking at before someone gets seriously injured or killed."

The congestion takes place during rush hour. It can also mean an increase in fares for taxi passengers, as the meter rises while taxis are unable to move in the congested traffic.

Mr Singh claims neither West Midlands Railway nor Wolverhampton Council are interested in listening to the concerns.

He added: "Passengers keep asking us 'when is the access road going to be finished?' And we keep saying 'it is finished'. But they don't believe us."

Construction is still underway on other parts of the train station.

The £130m project, called Wolverhampton Interchange, will see the Midland Metro extended from St George's and brought through to the train station.

The work, which has seen roadworks in place to lay the tracks, is set for completion in 2020.

Wolverhampton Council spokesman Oliver Bhurrut said: “We are aware of some concerns relating to how the railway station turnaround space currently operates.

“The Wolverhampton One Interchange working group – made up of representatives from West Midlands Railway, who operate the space, Transport for West Midlands and City of Wolverhampton Council - has been established to consider these issues and what action might be appropriate to ensure the wider station area operates as safely and efficiently as possible both now and in the future.

“Work is continuing on the development of the new station building and Metro extension, and discussions are ongoing about any additional physical works and alterations that might be necessary to improve operations in the turnaround area, so they can be timetabled to coincide with the wider development programme.”

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 LIVERPOOL

New measures will see Liverpool taxi drivers made to pass a new 'street knowledge' test - as well as examinations in conversational English and numeracy.

The bold new plan is expected to be signed off at a meeting of the council's licensing committee tomorrow - and comes as the authority ramps up its moves to improve the licensed trade in Liverpool.

Last week, Mayor Joe Anderson said he wanted action after a taxi driver did not know how to get take him the short distance from Edge Lane to his home in Old Swan.


Under the new review of driver training - which has been out for consultation over the summer - there will be new tests in city knowledge, basic English and numeracy, amongst other things.
Street knowledge test

The new proposals for driver training have been recommended by the council's city manager.

The most striking concerns the administering of the 'street knowledge' test taken by drivers.

Currently, the testing is outsourced to a private company - but the council plans to now bring this in house.

If approved, there will be a fee charged to applicants for the street knowledge test.

Taxi drivers in Liverpool city centre

The fee proposed is £65.00. After two failed tests, a further resit fee of £30.00 will be charged to the applicant. This resit fee will cover another 3 attempts at the test.

The council report states: "The requirement for licensed drivers to pass the Street Knowledge test is a crucial part of ensuring drivers licensed by the City Council have the necessary topographical knowledge and basic skills to work efficiently in the streets of Liverpool.


"To absolutely ensure this Test is delivered, invigilated and marked in a way which is 100% to the satisfaction of the City Council in terms of integrity, it is proposed that the City Council’s officers resume responsibility for the administration of the Test."
Maths and English skills

Another proposal that is expected to be given the green light at tomorrow's licensing meeting concerns a new 'essential skills' test for prospective drivers.

The proposed test will include additional numerical and English tests.


The report states: "There is currently no external process by training providers generically to assess the standard of an applicant’s numeracy and English language prior to the issue of a licence.

"The ability of a driver to properly calculate change to be given to a customer and converse with them on a basic level is as important as having a reasonable degree of knowledge of the City streets, landmarks and neighbourhoods.

"These are all matters which often give rise to complaints from the public."

"It is therefore proposed that, in order to ensure a uniform standard of English and Numeracy skills, during the street knowledge test a basic assessment will be carried out.

"This would include a section involving basic conversational English. The test will seek to ensure a candidate has a fundamental ability to answer simple questions, write receipts and calculate problems around change given to the customer."
Other proposals

As well as the above new testing plans - there are some other areas around driver training that form part of the new measures expected to get the green light tomorrow.

This will include adding new modules to the standard driver training - including those related to customers with wheelchairs, autism and age related issues like Dementia and Alzheimer's.


The new training package will also include a refresher on issues relating to Child Sexual Exploitation - which will be refreshed as part of the licence renewal process.

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 Barrow Eats was set up last year by entrepreneurs Scott Beckman and Sam Cunningham in a bid to offer a more reasonably-priced, and local, version of Just Eat.

Following on from the success with a recently-updated Barrow Eats app the pair have now launched a new business - an Uber-style taxi booking system for Barrow.

The Ubaro app allows customers to select their location and drop-off point on a map using the phone's location and customers can also pay for their journey on the app itself.

The launch follows the rebranding of taxi firm Barrow Cars to Street Cars after Mr Beckman and Mr Cunningham joined the firm as directors.

One of the first changes to the taxi firm, following on from the new name, is to fit all cabs with a card payment service so customers no longer have to stop off at a cash machine on the way.

Mr Beckman said: "The name of the app is Ubaro and is available to download now from the IOS and Android Stores.

"The UBARO app allows customers to book a taxi in just a few taps and you can pay via card for your journey directly in the app.

"The app also has live driver tracking, driver ratings and instant notifications so customers can quickly see who their driver is and where they currently are.

"The idea itself originally came from a few taxi drivers asking us to create an app for them on the back of the success of Barrow Eats.

"The app offers great flexibility and financial benefits to the drivers whilst giving the customers a convenient service.

"The fares will be at no extra cost than other local taxi firms including our own Street Cars.

"Unlike Uber we will only be using council registered drivers so customers can rest safe in the knowledge that all of our drivers have passed all the current requirements to be a local taxi driver.

"We already have over 30 drivers using UBARO and are looking to increase that amount over the next weeks and months."

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