City of London officers have recommended that the experimental order allowing licensed taxis through Bank Junction be made permanent. The Planning and Transportation Committee meets to decide on Tuesday 10 November 2026. The order expires on 28 January 2027.
The recommendation would keep licensed taxis travelling between Poultry and Cornhill from 7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday, with turning movements left as they are. Private hire vehicles and powered two-wheelers would remain restricted in those hours, which is what the Court of Common Council asked for when it voted in June 2024 to test a change. The order took effect on 28 July 2025. Works on Leadenhall Street kept westbound taxis off Cornhill at the start, so the route was fully open in both directions only after that carriageway reopened. Members can instead let the order lapse on 28 January 2027 and restore the previous weekday restriction on the Poultry and Cornhill arms.
Monitoring
On an average weekday between 7am and 7pm, taxis available for hire on Poultry, Cornhill and Princes Street rose from 548 in June 2025 to 878 in June 2026. The count is of movements, so the same cab can pass more than one survey point. All taxi movements at those three points rose from 1,063 to 1,952. Across the other nine sites, movements fell by 31%, from 8,165 to 5,651. Across all 12 sites the number of taxis observed fell by 17%, close to an 18% fall in taxis detected in the Congestion Charge zone between the first quarter of 2025/26 and the first quarter of 2026/27. The figures point to cabs moving off parallel streets, including Cannon Street and Gresham Street, and onto the route through Bank.
The casualty rates cover every hour of the week. From 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024 the average was 5.67 casualties a year. In the eight months from 1 August 2025 to 31 March 2026 there were six collisions and six casualties, four serious and two slight, which annualises to 9.0. None of those collisions directly involved a taxi. Two of the six casualties were on the east-west corridor. Four were recorded between August and the end of October, before the experiment was running in both directions. The single collision in 2023 is treated as an anomaly, because construction left much of the junction open only eastbound. Data for 2026 to 31 March are unverified. The monitoring finds the evidence insufficient to tie the higher annualised rate to the order. In the wider area, excluding the junction, the baseline was 47 casualties a year and the later annualised rate was 48.
Pedestrian waits are marked as unchanged. In June 2026 the longest morning wait was nine seconds above the baseline, a rise described as too small to count as significant. Eastbound bus times on the Cheapside and Cornhill corridor sat above Transport for London's limit of one standard deviation from the baseline for most of 2026. Taxi flows through Bank remain a possible factor. A pit lane for the redevelopment of 1 Old Jewry, and works on the St Paul's gyratory towards Newgate Street, are also likely to have added delay. Transport for London has asked for further work on that eastbound corridor if the order is made permanent. Queues lengthened on Cornhill and on Poultry near The Ned. The junction stayed within capacity, with queued vehicles typically clearing in a single green phase.
Consultation
A public consultation from 19 January to 31 May 2026 received 3,939 responses. On taxis travelling east and west at all times, 88% (3,436 responses) were fully in support and 9% (345) were fully opposed. Taxi drivers, with 2,240 responses, and taxi passengers, with 849, accounted for almost 80% of the total. Support was 99% among taxi drivers (2,201) and 100% among taxi passengers (838). It was 68% among people walking (237) and 24% among people cycling (72). Among people who cycle, 72% were opposed. The statutory consultation produced two replies: a comment in favour of wider taxi access generally, and a formal objection from the London Cycling Campaign, which remained after a meeting in September 2026.
The equality assessment records a route-specific benefit for some people who rely on taxis, and a possible loss of comfort, confidence and perceived safety for people walking, cycling or travelling by bus. Any effect on cycling may weigh more heavily on disabled people, older and younger people, women and pregnant women. The evidence stops short of showing causation or a measured disproportionate effect. Taken together, the results are neither wholly positive nor wholly negative. The case for a permanent order rests on the Court's 2024 decision, the consultation, higher taxi availability at Bank, and the lack of clear evidence of significant harm. If the order is made permanent, collisions, bus times, pedestrian waits, queues, and the experience of people walking and cycling would stay under review.
The trade and the cycling campaign
Simon Munk, head of campaigns and community development at the London Cycling Campaign, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "Bank Junction was incredibly dangerous prior to the changes nearly 10 years ago - not just for those cycling, but also for those walking and wheeling - and despite that, the taxi industry opposed the original scheme.
"The original scheme was safer, and as per the City's own reports already delivered sufficient access for taxis. This then is the City's politicians going against their own transport strategy, road danger reduction targets and data."
Paul Brennan, chairman of the London Taxi Drivers' Association, welcomed the recommendation: "We would have preferred to see unrestricted taxi access restored much sooner, but we recognise the Corporation's decision to test the arrangements and examine the evidence. We now hope the committee will follow its officers' recommendation and make the current arrangements permanent.
"This is another example of what we have said repeatedly. Licensed taxis are part of London's public transport network, and decisions about their access should be based on evidence rather than treating them in the same way as private cars.
"The findings at Bank demonstrate why that distinction matters, and I hope other authorities across London will take notice."