Well I - and I suspect many others here - are far more likely to trust the opinions of folk that address the real issues that matter rather than concentrating on making silly-clever lawyerly nitpicking points about nomenclature. If you really must, however, it might have been a bit more thoughtful to ask WHY the Authority is for GREATER London but the Assembly only for 'London' - a recipe for confusion (whather by deliberate intention or merely legislators' incomptence) - 'London' could - and in other contexts does - refer just to the approx square mile of the original Middlesex market town now known as the City of LONDON controlled by the Corporation of LONDON, presided over by a separate Lord Mayor of LONDON.Whatever, prettywell everybody concerned in the real world refers and will continue to refer to the GLA members, not the 'LA members' - and wisely so to avoid possible confusion with the widespread use of the term LA to refer to local authorities (in general); or for that matter the colloquial abbreviation for the Californian city-sprawl of Los Angeles.And more importantly, anybody that knows anything about the situation knows that the relationship between the Mayor of (Greater) London and his GLA/ Transport for London bureaucratic establishment on the one hand, and the Greater London Assembly/ London Assembly on the other, is and always has been essentially that between a dog and a lamppost - forget all that rubbish about 'scrutiny' and 'holding to account' - that's just to fool the gullible and reassure the servile - your term 'limited powers' is a gross understatement.Anyway, to get back to the actual subject of this thresd, the fact that public transport provison is even less satisfactory elsewhere on this island (and as a Northerner I know that only too well) does not mean London's transport system is good enough - it clearly isn't. And although it has a degree of somewhat patchy 'integration', a transport syatem isn't either integrated or not - there's a sliding scale of degrees of integration, and in many respects London's is nowhere near the top of that scale.And if you're going to slag off others for well-founded criticisms and concerns about transport provision and fares intentions you'd best get your own facts right. While it's not possible to - inadvertently or otherwise - get on a premium-fare Heathrow Express train at Ealing Broadway - and thereby get stung for excess fare/ penalty by the ever-dilgent on-train staff - because those trains don't stop there, it certainly is possible to do so at Paddington, and for that matter at (London) Victoria or Gatwick re the (also premium-fare) Gatwick Express - these special trains for the well-heeled don't have their own dedicated or segregated platforms at those stations. I don't know about the situation at Heathrow because I've never had occasion to use the Heathrow Express/ Heathrow Connect station there - but one thing's certain: your distinguishing that Heathrow branch as different because it was privately funded is nonsense, as the ordinary-fare Heathrow Connect local trains also use it, not just Heathrow Express.So, what's my point in going on about all that? - just that, based soundly on what happens elsewhere on the system, there's nothing (physically or legally) stopping the authorities charging premium fares for travel on Xrail trains despite that they'll use the same platforms as other trains at many utter stations includin g eali g broadway, and just leaving it up,to the punters to know which tains are which - and sting the unwary for excess/penalty fares.And the forumer that raised this concern has made it clear that his concern is soundly based on persistent equivocation on the part of those in authority he's quizzed on the subject. So you've a damned cheek to dismiss it as 'froth' ('boringly predictable' or otherwise) or 'forum green inkery' (whatever that means). if your evident dislike or contempt for critics of London's transport authorities and providers is because you're an employee, consultant, proprietor or politician with a vested interest in dismissing such criticism and concern perhaps you'd best come clean - the tone and content of your postings certainly makes it sound like it.
Chris Veasey ● 4972d