Latest London transport news round-up

From tube strikes to gardens.

Transcript

00:00Hello, yes, hope you are enjoying the good weather in London at the moment.

00:06A new bus route that links parts of southeast London has launched with free fares for its first week of the operation.

00:14The Baker Loop will run between Waterloo Station and Lewisham every 12 minutes during the day from Monday to Saturday

00:24and every 15 minutes in the evenings and on Sundays as well.

00:30They are electric double-decker BL1 services and they will operate between 5am and 30 minutes past midnight

00:38along the proposed Baker Loop tube line extension route, stopping at Elephant and Castle, New Cross Gate and Lewisham stations as well.

00:49The Mayor of London, Sir Sadie Khan, has said that the Baker Loop line extension will take years to build

00:56and he doesn't want to wait any longer to improve transport connections in the area for Londoners.

01:05And two bosses have made a pay offer to the transport trade unions as negotiations to avert another strike on the network continue.

01:14The new offer is a three-year deal compromising a 3.4% pay rise in year one

01:21and an increase in line with RPI in years two and three.

01:27Now, RPI is a retail price index that measures inflation and tracks the average change in prices of a basket of goods

01:35at the supermarket and services bought by most UK households.

01:39The offer was made in a meeting on Monday morning with the RMT, whose members went on to strike earlier this month

01:49and other transport unions, ASLEF, UNITE and TSSA as well.

01:54Now, after five days of tube strikes in September, it caused major disruptions to Londoners.

02:00We covered that here on London TV.

02:03The RMT said it wanted steps towards a reduction of three hours to a 32-hour working week as well.

02:10RMT General Secretary, Eddie Dempsey, said the new offer will now be discussed by the National Executive Committee

02:17and in consultation with the membership as well.

02:21And finally, some greener news.

02:27Stations and depots across London Transport Network have been transformed with gardens

02:33as part of an annual Transport for London contest.

02:37The In Bloom competition, which started back in 1910,

02:42sees TfL staff decorate stations and depots with flowers, fruits, vegetables and plants.

02:49It's a tradition to celebrate TfL's Silver Jubilee.

02:53The new Best Theme Award was introduced and won by Highbury and Islington Station.