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Transport for London warned on Monday that it was facing a funding shortfall after securing just half of the £500mn grant it had asked for from central government to keep the capital’s transport network running next year.
The £250mn deal is the latest in a series of bailouts by the UK government to help TfL recover from the impact of the pandemic after its finances were hit hard during Covid.
The transport body, which runs London’s extensive bus and surface rail networks as well as the London Underground metro system, has struggled to recover as traffic remains below pre-pandemic levels with a switch to hybrid working.
TfL said it remained on course to cover the costs of day-to-day operations by the end of the financial year in March 2024 but had been seeking £500mn over the following 12 months to help fund the modernisation of parts of the metro, the world’s oldest.
Andy Lord, London’s Transport Commissioner, said he welcomed the agreement with the government, but warned that TfL needs to “reassess” its business plan to “address the impact of the continued shortfall in funding”.
He added that work was under way to “confirm as soon as possible what we will deliver for London”.
Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London who oversees the transport body, said he was “relieved” a deal for next year had been reached but cautioned it was “still vitally important that we agree a decent long-term funding settlement from the government that allows us to plan and invest for the infrastructure London will need over the coming decades.”
Rail minister Huw Merriman said the funding agreement balanced the interests of both Londoners and taxpayers.
“We have invested billions into the capital’s transport system in recent years. This investment must be well managed in a way that doesn’t unfairly burden the pockets of taxpayers and motorists,” he said.
The new funding round takes the total provided by central government to TfL to nearly £6.4bn since the pandemic struck in early 2020.
Tensions between Khan and the UK’s ruling Conservative party have been strained over the past few years as successive bailouts have come with conditions attached and fallen well short of what TfL said was needed.
The £250mn funding for next year will be enough to finance new trains for the Piccadilly Line, which are being built by Siemens in Goole in East Yorkshire, and support 2,700 jobs around the country.
But TfL had been pushing for more cash to fund other upgrades, including an order for new rolling stock for other parts of the Underground, such as replacing the 50-year-old trains used on the Bakerloo Line.
Ageing trains and signalling systems are already leading to less reliable services on parts of the Underground, including the Central Line, one of the system’s busiest.
Letter in response to this article:
Travel by TfL — tidings of comfort and joy it ain’t / From Robert Bruce, London W9, UK