Ken Livingstone Initiatives taken by
Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London included the
London congestion charge on private vehicles using city centre London on weekdays, the creation of the
London Climate Change Agency, the London Energy Partnership and the founding of the international
Large Cities Climate Leadership Group, now known as
C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. The congestion charge led to many new buses being introduced across London. In August 2003, Livingstone oversaw the introduction of the
Oyster card electronic ticketing system for
Transport for London services. Livingstone supported the withdrawal of the vintage
AEC Routemaster buses from regular service in London. Livingstone introduced the London Partnerships Register which was a voluntary scheme without legal force for same sex couples to register their partnership, and paved the way for the introduction by the United Kingdom Parliament of
civil partnerships and later still,
Same-sex marriage. Unlike civil partnerships, the London Partnerships Register was open to heterosexual couples who favour a public commitment other than marriage. As Mayor of London, Livingstone was a supporter of the
London Olympics in 2012, ultimately winning the bid to host the Games in 2005. Livingstone encouraged sport in London; especially when sport could be combined with helping charities like The London Marathon and 10K charity races. Livingstone, in a mayoral election debate on the
BBC's
Question Time in April 2008, stated that the primary reason he supported the Olympic bid was to secure funding for the redevelopment of the
East End of London. In July 2007, he brought the
Tour de France cycle race to London.
Boris Johnson In May 2008,
Boris Johnson introduced a new transport safety initiative to put 440 high visibility police officers in and around bus stations. A ban on alcohol on underground, and Docklands Light Railway, tram services and stations across the capital was introduced. Also in May 2008, he announced the closure of
The Londoner newspaper, saving approximately £2.9 million. A percentage of this saving was to be spent on planting 10,000 new street trees. In 2010, he extended the coverage of
Oyster card electronic ticketing to all National Rail overground train services. Also in 2010, he opened
a cycle hire scheme (originally sponsored by
Barclays bank, now
Santander bank) with 5,000 bicycles available for hire across London. Although initiated by his predecessor,
Ken Livingstone, the scheme rapidly acquired the nickname of "Boris Bikes". Johnson withdrew the recently introduced high-speed high-capacity "
bendy buses" which had been bought by Livingstone from service in 2011, and supported the development of the
New Routemaster bus which entered service the next year. In 2011, Boris Johnson set up the Outer London Fund of £50 million designed to help improve local high streets. Areas in London were given the chance to submit proposals for two tranches of funding. Successful bids for Phase 1 included Enfield, Muswell Hill and Bexley town centre. the recipients of phase 2 funding were still to be announced. In January 2013, he appointed journalist
Andrew Gilligan as the first Cycling Commissioner for London. In March 2013, Johnson announced £1 billion of investment in infrastructure to make cycling safer in London, including a East to West segregated 'Crossrail for bikes'. At the
general election of 7 May 2015, Johnson was elected MP for
Uxbridge and South Ruislip, He continued to serve as mayor for the remainder of his term, and was not a candidate in the mayoral election of May 2016, won by Labour's
Sadiq Khan. Johnson was later
elected prime minister in 2019.
Sir Sadiq Khan First term Sir
Sadiq Khan introduced the 'bus hopper' fare on
TfL buses, which allows passengers to board a second bus within one hour for the same fare. Under Khan cash payment for travel was discontinued; payment was accepted, as before, by
Oyster payment card, and
contactless payment by
debit or credit card was introduced, an initiative started under Johnson. Upon election, Khan outlined a vision to make London the "greenest city" by investing in walking and
cycling infrastructure and reducing polluting vehicles. In 2019, the London "
Ultra Low Emission Zone" (ULEZ), in which higher-polluting vehicles pay a charge, was established. London declared itself the world's first "National Park City" (effective from July 2019), reflecting its unusually high amount of green space for a city of its size. The Government postponed all elections due in May 2020, including for the mayor of London, for one year due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, so that Khan served a five- rather than four-year first term.
Second term Elections were held in May 2021; Khan was re-elected for a three-year term, defeating the Conservative candidate
Shaun Bailey.
Third term ==See also==