Letter from Boris!

Dear MANUEL,

We've all been there. You settle into your seat, expecting an uneventful bus journey when this most routine of routines is rudely interrupted by the one person determined to make everyone's journey a misery. You think, why my bus? You feel like leaning dejectedly against an imaginary bar and saying; "of all the buses in all the world, you had to come into mine.'

It can be anything from someone playing their music out loud on their mobile, to shouting and swearing, to harassing other passengers or worse.

When I was campaigning to become Mayor, I heard many such stories from Londoners from all walks of life. Despite the machine gun rattle of statistics fired at us by the former Mayor about how safe our buses were, the bottom line was people did not feel safe.

That's why one of my flagship election promises was to fund 440 extra police officers whose sole purpose would be to patrol the buses.

This week, I witnessed the latest piece of the jigsaw fit neatly into place, when I launched the 32nd bus police team in Brixton.

Most encouragingly, we are starting to see results. The latest crime figures show an 18% drop in bus crime. Robbery, vandalism and violence against the person are all going down.

Without wishing to indulge in my own rattling out of statistics, I do believe this shows genuine progress. It shows that getting police officers out there does act as a deterrent to those who intend to cause trouble. And it demonstrates to Londoners that we take this seriously.

It's too early to tell if people are feeling safer on the buses, but from the many conversations I've had with people over the last year the issue of bus crime is raised less and less frequently.

However, I will never be complacent on this issue. We are heading in the right direction, but we will keep the pedal firmly to the metal.

Have a great weekend,