£6.6 million spent on taxis by Transport for London staff

The Mirror reports:

Boris Johnson’s transport staff have clocked up a £6.6million taxi bill... enough to take them more than two million miles.

The London Mayor regularly poses on a “Boris Bike” or travelling by public transport to push green travel policies.

But new figures show Transport for London (TfL) staff spend millions on fares to avoid joining ordinary commuters fighting for space on the capital’s ­crowded Tube and bus network. ­

Freedom of ­Information figures show ­£6.6million has been spent since April 2009.

The cost will be a major ­embarrassment to Mr Johnson, who is chairman of TfL and has introduced ­several green policies. He often boasts of the success of his £114million ­Barclays cycle hire scheme...

The money spent by TfL staff on taxis and minicabs could pay for a journey of 2,217,822 miles – the equivalent of going round the world 89 times. It comes as the organisation faces £10billion in cuts over seven years.

A TfL spokesman said: “Every request for a staff taxi has to be ­authorised and scrutinised.

“These vehicles are used ­between predetermined points on designated and scheduled routes and are shared with other staff wherever possible.”