Crunch Transport for London funding meeting today
TfL’s board are set to meet today which could see a funding settlement from the Department for Transport agreed.
In recent weeks TfL have been operating on financial reserves after issues with an offer from Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
Today’s meeting could agree to terms that TfL are not entirely happy with. That includes the length of funding on offer as TfL attempt to move towards the removal of government support.
Funding
London’s transport network is reliant on fare income compared to most other networks in other major world city’s, leaving it particularly prone to the pandemic and reduction in income.
After two years of short terms funding settlements which have impacted on the ability to plan projects and seen key staff leave due to that, the new offer offer some short term stability but for less time than hoped.
This weekend I covered the most recent transport usage figures. While some have received well, overall many modes are still down on pre-pandemic levels.
Any decisions taken at the meeting and what it entails for transport in the capital, could become apparent later today.
I do not feel it is unreasonable to raise fares by a few pence after fares have been frozen for so long. As long as this will help to stabilise finances at TFL and as long as The Mayor Of London Sadiq Khan promises to improve services in Outer London which he first promised in 2018 when he made the first round of cuts to London bus services.
We are now waiting to see if some Central London bus services will be cut and other routes merged into one like the proposals for routes 1 and 168. Other routes are subject to change.
We also need to see if other projects for the underground and DLR will now be secured for the future.
The Government do need to invest and provide extra funding in the UK public transport infrastructure to attract new businesses etc to the UK.