is calling on the government to assist struggling
taxi drivers whose incomes have plummeted as train passenger
numbers have dropped.
Cambridge taxi drivers pay a fee to Greater Anglia, who run
Cambridge railway station, to use the station's taxi rank.
Cabbies got a brief reprieve in July and August but now have been
told that taxi rank fees are owed, in full.
Local drivers say this is unaffordable and the final nail in the
coffin for their business. One driver said that he was earning
less than £30 a day during lockdown. Other drivers fear that if
they do not pay up they will lose their rights to pick up
passengers at the station.
MP Daniel Zeichner reacted with fury when the Department for
Transport told him they had made "no assessment" whatsoever of
the impact on drivers' incomes.
said: "Passenger numbers have collapsed and the
taxi trade is feeling the pinch. People have been told to stay
home again and many drivers have not been able to make a living
for months. It is disgraceful that the Department for Transport
is doing nothing to assist taxi drivers. Given that they now in
effect run the rail companies surely some of the "Emergency
Measures Agreements" for substantial subsidies to train operating
companies could be used to off-set the taxi rank fees."
