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How establishing and protecting taxi ranks can involve years of negotiation, multiple authorities and thousands of pounds in costs
Securing a new taxi rank in London is rarely a simple request for a few painted lines on the road. The process can involve identifying suitable kerb space, obtaining traffic orders, securing funding, coordinating highway works and negotiating with several different authorities.
The issue has been highlighted by LTDA chairman Paul Brennan, who said the capital currently has approximately 686 listed taxi ranks, providing around 3,000 spaces. He said the ranks had become increasingly difficult to establish and retain as demand for kerbside space grew.
“Every one of those spaces has been fought for and, increasingly, even harder to retain,” Brennan wrote. “A rank might sit on a TfL road, a borough road, a City of London street or private land. Each brings its own particular challenges.”
The process can begin with a request from the taxi trade for a new rank or changes to an existing one. However, the proposed location must be assessed against traffic flows, loading requirements, road restrictions and the responsibilities of different landowners or highway authorities.
Brennan cited the redevelopment of the Chancery Rosewood hotel in Grosvenor Square as an example. The Cab Ranks Committee, made up of the LTDA, Unite, LCDC and UCG, requested a rank location further forward from where it eventually ended up. Discussions involved Transport for London and Westminster City Council.
At the time, traffic arrangements around Grosvenor Square were expected to continue operating clockwise, with no bay immediately outside the hotel. The proposed location was therefore considered the best available option under those circumstances. However, Brennan said that changing road layouts meant the arrangement no longer necessarily made sense.
The trade has also explored alternative locations, including diplomatic bays in Upper Brook Street and space outside 22 Cavendish Square on North Audley Street. Both options presented difficulties. Using the diplomatic bays would require agreement from the relevant parties, while the Cavendish Square proposal would have required junction alterations costing well into six figures.
“Getting a taxi rank appointed, moved, extended or, sometimes, even repainted is rarely simple,” Brennan said.
The cost of providing taxi ranks is another barrier. Councils may earn revenue from parking bays, but taxi ranks themselves generally require public funding or financial contributions from other organisations. Brennan said a single taxi rank could cost around £5,000 once traffic orders, administration and road markings had been completed.
“When we ask a borough for a four-cab rank, we are not asking someone to pop outside with a tin of yellow paint and a brush,” he wrote. “We are potentially asking for thousands of pounds of works to be greenlit.”
Funding may need to compete with other highway priorities, including pothole repairs, pedestrian crossings and wider road improvements.
Brennan credited TfL’s Ranks and Highways team with working to secure funding from different budgets within TfL and the boroughs, although much of that work takes place away from public view.
Repainting an existing rank can also involve several stages. In one example involving the City of London and Tower Hamlets, a request was initially sent to the wrong authority. After the relevant traffic order was eventually identified, TfL submitted a request for the rank to be repainted.
Even after approval, the work still had to be funded, a works order raised and a contractor or highways team allocated. Brennan said the process could take weeks or months, with further delays possible if emergency repairs, vehicle breakdowns or other jobs intervened.
“Eventually, the magical day arrives when somebody is scheduled to paint the rank,” he wrote. “Then the crew gets diverted to an emergency highway repair.”
London’s changing streetscape creates a further challenge. A rank that was suitable for years may no longer serve a venue that has closed or a street where traffic arrangements have changed. The trade may then seek to move a redundant rank or secure replacement provision elsewhere.
Brennan said the trade did not regard a rank’s removal as inevitable when circumstances changed. If a rank no longer worked, efforts would be made to move it. If a major new hotel or venue opened, the trade would push for proper taxi provision. Where an existing rank disappeared beneath roadworks, cycle infrastructure or another highway scheme, the objective would be to retain or replace it in a suitable location.
“The hundreds of ranks we do have today didn’t appear by accident,” Brennan said. “They exist because generations fought to establish them.”
He added that kerbside space had become “valuable, contested and increasingly expensive”, making the protection of existing ranks as important as securing new ones.
The account offers an explanation for why apparently straightforward changes can take considerable time. Behind a small number of yellow road markings may be traffic assessments, consultation, funding decisions, statutory processes, road orders and physical works involving more than one organisation.
