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| Sadiq Khan takes Transport for London into new business territory | Sadiq Khan takes Transport for London into new business territory |
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| Rows about the finances of Transport for London (TfL) were prominent during this year’s election campaign and also a bit odd. For years, Conservatives had claimed that the large and powerful mayoral agency is a bloated bureaucracy in need of ruthless trimming, yet there was the Tory candidate – a Mr Goldsmith, you might recall - insisting that it could not cope with its fares being frozen for four years, while Labour man Sadiq Khan was pledging to transform it into a paragon of enterprise and efficiency. | Rows about the finances of Transport for London (TfL) were prominent during this year’s election campaign and also a bit odd. For years, Conservatives had claimed that the large and powerful mayoral agency is a bloated bureaucracy in need of ruthless trimming, yet there was the Tory candidate – a Mr Goldsmith, you might recall - insisting that it could not cope with its fares being frozen for four years, while Labour man Sadiq Khan was pledging to transform it into a paragon of enterprise and efficiency. |
| Seven months on from Khan’s big win, the first TfL business plan of his mayoralty has appeared. The sums are there on paper. So are Khan’s ambitious promises. Political opponents, naturally, say neither add up, with Tory AM Keith Prince worrying that the number crunching bites too deeply into TfL’s reserves and even using the word “socialist” to describe them - on Her Majesty’s BBC too! He also points out, quite correctly, that borrowing is going to soar. | |
| Certainly, Khan is pushing the principle of “less from more”, embraced by his predecessor Boris Johnson as an exacting and yet bracing austerity obligation, into adventurous new territory. TfL’s income is in a pincer squeeze, as the government’s operational grant is phased out and Khan’s fares policy means less coming in than would have been the case had he allowed them to rise by inflation or more. | Certainly, Khan is pushing the principle of “less from more”, embraced by his predecessor Boris Johnson as an exacting and yet bracing austerity obligation, into adventurous new territory. TfL’s income is in a pincer squeeze, as the government’s operational grant is phased out and Khan’s fares policy means less coming in than would have been the case had he allowed them to rise by inflation or more. |
| In round numbers, TfL says it will have £3.5bn less from those sources over the next five years but that £4bn of savings will more than make up for it, by shedding expensive staff, renegotiating contracts and merging departments. Its annual budget is £11.5bn. “We are driving efficiency through the biggest ever overhaul of our organisation,” writes TfL commissioner Mike Brown in his foreword. | In round numbers, TfL says it will have £3.5bn less from those sources over the next five years but that £4bn of savings will more than make up for it, by shedding expensive staff, renegotiating contracts and merging departments. Its annual budget is £11.5bn. “We are driving efficiency through the biggest ever overhaul of our organisation,” writes TfL commissioner Mike Brown in his foreword. |
| Meanwhile, the network’s capacity to move people around, both above ground and below it, needs to go on enlarging as London’s population booms. The opening of Crossrail – the Elizabeth Line – in 2018 will create more space and bring in more money too, but the then TfL commissioner Sir Peter Hendy predicted way back in March 2013 that “it will be immediately full”. | Meanwhile, the network’s capacity to move people around, both above ground and below it, needs to go on enlarging as London’s population booms. The opening of Crossrail – the Elizabeth Line – in 2018 will create more space and bring in more money too, but the then TfL commissioner Sir Peter Hendy predicted way back in March 2013 that “it will be immediately full”. |
| Rising passenger numbers and trips in general will bump revenues up too - by 38% by 2021, TfL predicts - including on the buses, though be warned that the numbers of journeys made on London’s buses fell by 3.6% in the year to June. Green Party AM Caroline Russell has welcomed a £770m commitment to cycling, but says she fears that without measures to reduce the number of cars, “less space on the roads thanks to new measures for cycling and walking means buses will be stuck in traffic”. Congestion isn’t good for anyone’s business, including TfL’s. | |
| In the longer term, TfL has plans to increase the frequency of trains on the Underground and to bring forward the Bakerloo Line extension by two years to 2029. More immediately, it is stressing its own importance as a facilitator of economic growth, stimulating employment and development. Brown writes that this benefits not only Londoners but also “the entire country”. | In the longer term, TfL has plans to increase the frequency of trains on the Underground and to bring forward the Bakerloo Line extension by two years to 2029. More immediately, it is stressing its own importance as a facilitator of economic growth, stimulating employment and development. Brown writes that this benefits not only Londoners but also “the entire country”. |
| It is, perhaps, a measure of government incoherence over dealing with withdrawal from the European Union that transport minister Chris Grayling has ditched the deal to hand control of Southern and other suburban rail services to TfL, infuriating even London fellow Tory politicians. Giving the capital more autonomy could usefully assist with propping up the UK economy in the uncertain years ahead. And should Khan’s transport budgets start to come unstuck, maybe bailing him out will be thought worth it. Like it or not, Leave Nation cannot afford to let Remain City fail. | |
| The new draft Transport for London business plan is here. | The new draft Transport for London business plan is here. |