Call Sign July 2008 - Page 15 - STEVE NORRIS BACK! - AFTER ELECTRIC AND HYDROGEN TAXIS…

STEVE NORRIS BACK!		Steve Norris working with the Mayor takes shape, no doubt the constructive dialogue between TfL, the PCO and the trade will continue and flourish." Steve Norris never courted popularity when as a Minister he introduced a Green Paper for the licensing of private hire, but there can be no doubt that no one other than a taxi driver knows our business better than he. It certainly bodes for interesting times…
With the election of Boris Johnson as Mayor of London, one of his quieter appointments has been that of Steve Norris. The former Tory Minister of Transport for London Mayor has been asked by the new Mayor to coordinate between the TfL board and that of the London Development Agency (LDA). We asked Steve to give us a brief résumé of how he saw the position? He told Call Sign: "I am very much looking forward to my new role helping Mayor Johnson sort out the utter mess left to him by his predecessor and moving transport forward in London. He has asked me specifically to ensure that the work of TfL and the LDA is sensibly co-ordinated. These two bodies both have very large budgets and it is vital that they work together if we are to ensure best value for council tax payers. Turning specifically to the	licensed taxi trade, it is the Mayor who sets the strategy and I don't want in any way to anticipate what he might say, but you will already know from his election manifesto that he is committed to the abolition of the six monthly test as being unreasonably bureaucratic and expensive. There are a number of other detailed issues we will want to engage on, but speaking personally, my biggest concern as someone who has known the trade intimately for nearly twenty years, is that the profession is ageing rapidly. There are simply not enough young people coming through to replace those nearing retirement. That is a real threat to one of London's greatest assets and I will be looking carefully at anything we can do which will improve that position. As the board of Transport for London

AFTER ELECTRIC AND HYDROGEN TAXIS…

Now a cab that runs on tap water?

Within weeks of announcing the first electric cab (May Call Sign, page 30), a consortium of companies have announced the first fleet of zero-emission ‘black’ cabs that will be ready to ply for hire before the London Olympics in 2012. The consortium consists of international fuel cell maker Intelligent Energy, auto manufacturer Lotus Engineering, vehicle testing firm TRW Conekt… and of course LTI.
But following that announcement comes news of the race to commercially produce the first vehicle able to run just on ordinary tap water!
Swiss Based Company, Ethos, are said to be working closely in conjunction with Daniel Dingle,
one of the first people in the world to convert his car
to run on ordinary tap water. That was back in

1968 and now Ethos have set up a new foundation to

help bring the "invention" to the world whilst at the same time helping Daniel to raise money to help his fellow Filipino people. However, they have competition from the Japanese in the race to produce a first water powered car.
Japanese company Genepax has announced an eco-friendly car that runs on nothing but water. It has an energy generator that extracts hydrogen from the water that is poured into the car’s tank. The generator then releases electrons that produce electric power to run the car. They now plan to work with Japanese manufacturers to mass-produce it. Could it work in a cab? Why not???

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