London’s black cabs protest at Olympic lane ban

Controversy continues to dog the London Olympics. First it was security concerns now the capital’s strained transport network is in the spotlight.

Drivers of London’s famous black taxi cabs are up in arms over being banned from using traffic lanes reserved for ferrying athletes and other Olympic-related officials.

“I’m a second-class citizen in my own London town. Why should we not be allowed to use the Olympic lanes? We are London cab drivers. It’s our right to use those lanes. It’s going to affect my job on a daily basis,” complained one driver to euronews.

Another said: “It’s just very frustrating. They used the taxis the same way they used David Beckham to get the Olympics and now they’ve just dropped us.”

“It’s going to affect our trade dreadfully, and it’s also going to affect the passengers that we take in a really, really serious way,” fumed another driver.

Our correspondent in London says motorists and commuters in the notoriously congested city had been braced for lengthy tailbacks but did not expect them to come quite so soon.

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Ali Sheikholeslami, London Correspondent

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