BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

'A TRANS-ATLANTIC TAXI SWAP KEEPS HISTORIC METERS RUNNING'



By A. G. SULZBERGER
Published: February 9, 2010 The New York Times


Clanking through the crowded London city streets one recent afternoon, the old New York Checker cab provoked looks of disbelief, and not just because the well-loved, almost comically bulky car disappeared from commercial use long ago.

For a New Yorker, the cab was traveling on the wrong side of the road. In fact, it was on the wrong side of the Atlantic.

More than a decade after the last Checker cab was taken out of service in New York City, a small collection of the unmistakably boxy yellow cars, complete with mechanical meters, rate information decals and left-side steering wheels are now seen on the streets of the British capital.

And just as some Checkers motor on abroad, a collection of antique London black cabs, with the conservative, even dowdy styling reminiscent of an old tuxedo, have found a home in New York.

Behind these cab-out-of-water foreign fleets is the relationship between two men with overlapping personal and business interests, identical yet inverse automotive niches and a friendship that spans 3,500 miles.

For more than a decade, the two men, Ray Tomkinson of Manchester, England (below left with Checker), and Alvaro Gallego of Queens (below right with London Taxi), both taxi entrepreneurs with a love of vintage vehicles, have swapped these signature hacks of their homelands along with modern models, parts and other taxi paraphernalia across the Atlantic Ocean, typically on barter.
Basically no cash changes hands Mr. Tomkinson said.We were just paying for each othes shipping, and the cabs were going across the Atlantic backward and forward.

Mr. Tomkinson, who took over his family taxi company in Manchester in the early 1970s, has amassed a large collection of antique cabs from around the world. Mr. Gallego, a Colombian immigrant and a former cab driver, has run a company that specializes in taxi meter repairs for 38 years, collecting vehicles on the side.

In addition to bolstering personal collections, their cars are rented out for film shoots and promotional campaigns like when British Airways hired one of Mr. Tomkinson's Checker cabs to drive around London and one of Mr. Gallego's black cabs to drive around New York to advertise flights between the two cities.

The two men have done business for about 12 years but have never met. For all the cabs they have shipped across the ocean more than two dozen neither man has ever made the trip himself. I consider him my friend Mr. Gallego said. We've been so long together talking about taxis, business. We have a passion for what we do.

There is something fitting that in the world of intercontinental antique vehicle swapping, it would be these two models passing each other at sea.

The designs of both the Checker and black cabs largely unchanged since the 1950s have come to symbolize their home cities, their distinctive curves adorning all manner of gift-shop knickknacks. And both were made explicitly to be taxis purpose-built, according to the industry lingo with roomy back seats large enough to comfortably hold five people thanks to the rear-facing, flip-down jump seats.

But the bulk that made the cars so endearing to generations of riders also drove up costs and drove down fuel efficiency. Once the most common taxi model in New York, the Checker ended production in 1982 after it proved unable to compete with converted passenger vehicles like the now-ubiquitous Ford Crown Victoria. The final Checker retired from service in New York 17 years later. The black cab still accounts for an overwhelming majority of the London taxi fleet, though it too has been pressed by new models, stoking the fear that it could go the way of the Checker.

Fans say the cabs have timeless qualities. Both are strong and good cars Mr. Gallego said. They've been doing what they've been supposed to be doing for so many years, moving people from A to B in a safe way, in a roomy way.

He and Mr. Tomkinson developed an interest in antique taxis by starting with their own domestic variety.

After years of acquiring and restoring old British cars at his garage in Manchester Mr. Tomkinson, now 62, began renting them out for period movies and television shows. About 15 years ago, a producer asked him for a New York cab. So I diversified, he said.

Mr. Gallego, 64, had nurtured an interest in old taxis since first sitting behind the wheel of a cab four decades ago when he was still new to America. His skill at tracking down old parts and models for other collectors led him to start a second business, Taxidepot, renting old cabs and antique car equipment to movie and television producers.

Eventually Mr. Tomkinson was introduced to Mr. Gallego as someone who could handle his business in the United States. At first, Mr. Tomkinson paid cash for the vehicles that Mr. Gallego helped procure.

That work led to Mr. Gallego inquiring about the feasibility of sending London cabs to New York. Soon they were working out trades. I would get a taxi, he would get a taxi, Mr. Gallego said. He'd say: Get me four Crown Victorias in nice condition; you get a London cab.

Each speaks with pride about the cabs they have traded for. It's good to see these old cabs not retire, Mr. Tomkinson said. They're still earning a living somehow.

Photo credits; left side; Richard Perry, right side; Andrew Testa (both for the Times).

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Mr. Linsky]

As long as we're on the subject of London Taxi's, I'll tell you a cute story (one of my many!).

It must have been at the end of the school term in mid May 1959 that I began to peruse the papers looking for a summer job when I saw an ad for drivers for The London Livery Company.

Figuring that driving an English taxi sounded like fun. I appeared at their office in Long Island City the next morning for interview and landed a job that started the following day (I did have a Chauffeur's license which was really the only prerequisite at the time).

I get to the garage the next morning in a pouring rainstorm and proceed to my first call in Manhattan in what I can only describe as the worst rattle trap I had ever driven with a leaking windshield that kept me soaked for the entire day.

As if that weren't bad enough, the fumes and noise from the Diesel engine gave me a splitting headache!

Anyway, to make a long story a bit shorter, that evening I turned in the car and quit!, and related the day's events to my father who then mentioned that he thought Green Line was looking for seasonal help.

The rest, as they say, is history!

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY