The Mayor of London has warned that Transport for London could suffer “widespread disruption and gridlock” due to a £1.9 million funding gap.
Sadiq Kahn is urging the UK Government for urgent TfL funding in order to recover from the pandemic. The London Mayor warns that that “the whole country will pay the price” if the London funding gap isn’t plugged.
Without support from the government the London bus service may be reduced by a fifth and the tube service by 10%.
There can be no London recovery without a properly funded transport network in the capital. Fact. And there can be no national recovery without a London recovery. If the Govt fails to work with us to protect TfL, London & the whole country will pay the price for decades to come.
— Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan (@MayorofLondon) November 18, 2021
The City Hall’s finance committee found that the Coivd-19 pandemic impacted the capital’s transport system much more than expected.
In a statement, the Mayor of London warned that “we are now less than a month away from TfL’s emergency funding deal expiring on 11 December.” This will leave Sadiq Khan and TfL with no other option than to cut services.
“Our city contributes £36.1 billion net to the Treasury each year. TfL contracts contribute around £7 billion to the UK economy, and its supply chain supports 43,000 jobs around the country,” the Labour mayor added.
Although Sadiq Kahn recognises the importance of levelling up the entirety of the country, he believes this shouldn’t result in the “levelling down London”.
The TfL Finance Committee reports reductions of more than £1 billion in annual running costs over the past 5 years. Yet, they expect a further “managed decline” if the government don’t invest in London’s transport.
In response to this, Andy Byford, London’s Transport Commissioner, told City News: “There is no UK recovery from the pandemic without a London recovery. There is no London recovery without a properly funded transport network in the capital.
“Without meaningful sustained investment, we will see a damaging vicious circle of underinvestment and service cuts, dragging London back to the 1970s and 80s era of an ageing, infrequent and unreliable transport network.”
