“It’s existential”: TfL boss says Government failure on long-term funding deal would be “betrayal” of London
THE man in charge of the capital’s creaking transport network has said that it will be a “betrayal” of London if TfL does not get a long-term funding deal this year.
Commissioner Andy Byford warned that if the government did not agree a multi-year package with the operator it would set back the UK’s recovery from the pandemic.
“We’ve got to come to an arrangement with the government that secures TFL’s long term funding future: it’s existential for us”, he told Morning Wire.
“It will be a betrayal for London, if we were then only given a short term or sub-optimal deal either in terms of quantum or duration.”
When the pandemic swept around the world last spring, TfL saw its fare-reliant revenues collapse 95 per cent as people stayed at home in lockdown.
As a result, the government has paid out £4bn to the operator in a series of six month deals that have allowed it to keep services running.
The latest deal is due to expire on 11 December, but Byford believes the deal TfL has proposed “would benefit not only London but the UK”.
“Don’t forget that London generates £39bn net for the Exchequer every year, so you’ve got to get London firing again in order to achieve levelling up, and in order for London to motor, TfL has to be properly funded.”
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He knocked back suggestions that relations between City Hall and Number 10, which have declined amid the pandemic, could scupper a deal being struck.
“There is common ground. Everyone agrees that TfL needs to thrive – you can’t have a capital city without a viable transport system”.
Having all but flatlined last year, passenger numbers on the Tube and bus networks are now at around 50 and 66 per cent of pre-pandemic levels respectively as workers head back to offices and children to school.
In the short to medium term, Byford said that the best case scenario would see ridership recover to 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
But he insisted that service cuts were not on the cards, describing the process as a “death spiral”.
“It would be false economy and folly to cut services or maintenance now before we know what the recovery will look like. That is a slippery slope that’s easy to do and you regret it at your leisure”, he told Morning Wire.
However, he did not rule out “tweaks” to services, like cutting the frequency of buses on central London routes, as TfL has already done.
Morning Wire has contacted the Department for Transport for comment.
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