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The Route Masters: Running London's Roads

Alistair Pegg

Simon Gilchrist

The Route Masters: Running London's Roads: Episode 4: Gateway to London

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Gateway to London

Episode 4

Episode 4: Gateway to London

BBC Two - The Route Masters: Running London's Roads, Gateway to London

How Victoria Coach Station has been transformed, effectively becoming a new border.

Series about London's roads. How Victoria Coach Station has been transformed, with cheap fares leading to a 25 per cent increase in passengers over five years.

Thanks to the way London has changed, one of the oldest parts of the city's transport infrastructure has become the busiest. In the last decade, Victoria Coach Station has been transformed and London's only coach station has in effect become a new border for thousands of migrants coming to Britain from Eastern Europe and elsewhere. Cheap coach fares have resulted in a 25 per cent increase in passengers in the last five years alone. So the Transport for London staff running the coach station must now work flat-out to cope with the demand. 

Customer service assistant Hayley, a former bodyguard and stuntwoman, has worked out her own special technique for charming the coach drivers. Jack speaks Polish, which helps when he has to deal with hundreds of Poles departing and arriving every day. And Sergeant Shaun Doyle is on patrol, coping with everything from a missing teenager who turns up at the coach station to illegal immigrants and stowaways. Alan, a coach enthusiast who has been conducting his own private study of the station for the last forty years, says, 'Victoria is the hub. All human life is here'.

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Following the TfL staff and police officers who keep London's road system flowing.

Following the Transport for London staff and police officers who keep London's road system from freezing up entirely under the immense pressure of millions of commuters.

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Episode 4: Gateway to London

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