Ken Livingstone, Labour’s mayoral candidate, answers your questions:

 Q: What exactly, will the additional profit from the extended Congestion charge zone be spent on? In fact, what is the profit made from the original Congestion charge zone being spent on?! Posted by Annie Sanders

A: Every single penny of the 123 million pounds raised by the congestion charge is invested in improving London’s transport infrastructure, including the bus network, road safety schemes, walking and cycling programmes and projects to improve roads and bridges. Indeed, it has to be by law.  

Public transport use has boomed since the introduction of the Congestion Charge. A record number of more than one billion passengers a year are using the Tube and around 116,000 bus passengers enter central London in the weekday morning peak period, which is 32 per cent above the level in 2002. There has also been a 43 per cent increase in cycling within the charging zone.  

The charge has helped London become the only major city in the world to see a significant shift from private car use to public transport, walking and cycling.  The level of traffic within the zone is down 21 per cent since the introduction of the charge — 70,000 fewer vehicles each day.  From October 27 cars with the highest carbon emissions will pay 25 pounds to drive in  central London which will raise around 30 million pounds -50 million pounds which will be reinvested in transport improvements across the capital, including my plans to improve facilities for walking and cycling in London  

Q: Do you regret purchasing the bendy buses for TFL? If no, would you in retrospect still purchase them? Would you ever be able to admit that you have made an error?- Posted by gael marks 

A: I don’t regret purchasing bendy buses because they have transformed the travelling experience of passengers on the routes that they served. We have only put them on the very busiest routes, where previously many passengers had to wait for two or even three buses in the morning peak before there was space for them to get on.  

Bendy buses can simply carry many more passengers than any other bus, and because they have three doors people can get on and off more quickly, reducing waiting times. Although they make up just five per cent of the bus fleet in London they carry nine per cent of the passengers, 164 million last year. 

 Most of the people who use bendy buses regularly rate them more highly than any other bus. Like many Londoners, I loved the old Routemasters, but they were too small to meet the rising demand for bus services, and the open backed platform caused many accidents and made it impossible for many Londoners — particularly older people and disabled people — to use them at all.   So on the busiest routes, bendy buses mean faster, safer and more frequent services for Londoners.    

Q: We were promised a world class transport system from the first mayoral elections, but life on the tube has gone from bad ro worse. How do you propose to bring London’s Victorian age transport system to the 21st century?- Posted by Raxa Mehta

A: I inherited a tube system which had suffered from decades of underinvestment and neglect.  

When I was first elected I put in place a world class management team at London Underground which is now delivering record investment in the tube with 1.5 billion pounds a year. That investment has funded new trains on the Victoria Line, an extra carriage for every Jubilee Line train and modernisation work to more than 30 London Underground stations.  

Over the next four years I will start constructing the 16 billion pounds Crossrail project, deliver air conditioning on new trains on the Circle, District, Metropolitan, Hammersmith and City lines, and air cooling on the Piccadilly line. I will bring in refurbished District Line trains, raise capacity on the Jubilee Line by 30 per cent, put an extra carriage on all Hammersmith and City trains and ensure that 25 per cent of stations to have step free access.  

If re-elected I will direct Transport for London to take over the contracts of the failed Metronet private consortium and restructure them so they can deliver the track, train and signalling upgrades required along with station and security improvements. This policy compares starkly with Boris Johnson, who attacked Ken Livingstone’s opposition to the Tube PPP as mere “ideological warfare”, backed privatisation of the railways, and appeared to suggest on BBC London that he will revert to the failed model of the Metronet PPP by appointing an ‘arbiter’ to ensure best value from the contracts — rather than bringing the contracts back into public ownership as I will do.  

Q: What would you do as Mayor to improve paid employment prospects of disabled volunteers, who are all too frequently relegated to unemployment-related benefits and expenses due to lack of project funding? Alan Wheatley, working life-long disabled volunteer  

A: Improving access to employment for disabled Londoners is a crucial issue for the capital. Last year we launched the 11 million pounds Olympic Opportunity Fund which targets disabled Londoners for training and work placements so they can take advantage of all the benefits that come with the 2012 Games. 

In 2006 the London Development Agency announced 7m pounds for projects that will help 5,000 disabled Londoners find work or learn new skills. And we have used the £300 million European Social Fund to support new employment opportunities for disabled Londoners.  

Transport is often a major barrier for disabled Londoners taking up employment, which is one of the reasons why I have ensured that 100 per cent of London ’s bus fleet are now low-floor accessible buses, and have massively increased funding for Taxicard and Dial-a-Ride. Earlier this year I abolished Dial-a-Ride fares altogether for Freedom Pass users.   I will continue this support for disabled Londoners, implementing a clear and ambitious strategy to remove barriers to the employment of disabled staff.  

Q: As a London resident I have noticed an increase in hostility from the recently immigrated population towards the culture, lifestyle and the customs of the settled population of London. Would you: as London mayor: encourage the settled population to change the way they live their lives to appease the new population or would you prefer to encourage the new population to learn and respect London’s cosmopolitan but British culture. And how would you go about it?- Posted by Genevieve  

A: One of the great things about London is its incredible cultural diversity. London is a city where everyone is free to be who they want to be, to enjoy their own culture and many others, as long as what they do does not harm anyone else.  London now enjoys among the best community relations in the world. Racist attacks have fallen by over fifty per in eight years. Not much more than 20 years ago there were riots in Brixton and Broadwater Farm, just as there have been recently in Paris . London stood united even when faced with the horror of terrorist attacks on 7 July 2005 . Everything I have done, and will do, as Mayor is designed to continue this.  

Q: I work as a district nurse for Southwark PCT. We have to visit patients within the congestion area on a daily basis to administer various medical treatments. We have to pay the congestion charge, claim this back from our PCT who in turn reclaim this from TFL. If a nurse forgets to purchase a ticket and accrues a fine it has to be paid from his or her own pocket. One nurse last week had to pay over £160 in fines. Careless? No, not when we are dealing with seriously ill and dying patients. We cannot travel on public transport with medical records, body fluids and medical equipment. The sick people of Southwark are being penalised as nurses are loathe to visit the congestion area in fear of possible penalties. We are undertaking an essential service but if we were mini-cabs or vehicles for ‘pre-booked’ hire we would be exempt from the charge. This will never, ever make any sense to me. Please somebody help us - Posted by John Bailey  

A: I am very sorry to hear of John’s problem. I made specific provision for NHS workers like you who have to use their vehicle in the congestion charging zone in the course of your work. I am sorry you are experiencing problems with your employer and I would be happy to ask Transport for London commissioner, Peter Hendy to raise this with your NHS Trust.

Since the congestion charge was introduced I have made the system more flexible to make it and easier for Londoners to pay. This means that if you pay by midnight on the day of travel you are charged £8, if you pay by midnight the following charging day you are charged £10 and if you travel on a Friday you have until midnight on the following Monday to pay. I also made all Emergency Service vehicles, including ambulances / fire engines and NHS vehicles that are not liable from road tax exempt from the congestion charge.  

 Q: As the heart of the nation, London’s arterial roads that transport the nation’s economic life blood have chronic blockages that impair its health and the health of all who use them. Under Mayor Livingstone, congestion charges (statins), new larger buses (cholesterol) , more and more traffic lights (heart valves) and narrowing of the arteries by constructing more and more granite-edged islands and wider pavements have made matters far worse not better. Major surgery is needed. Do any of the candidates have plans for seriously revamping TfL, changing the policy (and attitudes) to, for example, adopt tried and tested Tokyo methods for preventing arterial blockages - all road work at night and especially large holes covered with plates during the day. Do they agree with me that we must move with the times and construct elevated sections of road like the old Mancunian Way (say above The Highway, Thames Street and the Embankment) and again, emulate Tokyo’s road system (but do it better) where there are heart bypasses for through traffic built on stilts or in tunnels?- Posted by graham mellor

A: When I was elected Mayor in 2000 I immediately introduced measures that would improve London ’s transport — such as the expansion and improvement of London ’s bus system and the introduction of the congestion charge to tackle the traffic gridlock in central London.  

Since the introduction of the Congestion Charge 70,000 fewer cars enter the central zone each day than before charging began. Overall, the latest Transport for London monitoring report shows traffic levels remain 21 per cent and congestion eight per cent below pre-charging levels.

Despite this, traffic speeds have begun to slow and some congestion benefits have been eroded. This is mainly as a result of the huge increase in work being carried out by utility companies, in particular those renewing London ’s Victorian water and gas mains.

It is clear that if Congestion Charging was not in place and the 70,000 cars returned to central London , the capital would grind to a halt. If re elected I will bring in a compulsory permit scheme for all road-works in London so there is proper co-ordination and disruption is avoided. As Thames Water and other utility companies complete their large replacement works, together with the reduction in traffic already produced by the congestion charge, and accompanied by other measures to reduce traffic congestion in central London, there will be no let-up in pressure to reduce delays.