TfL granted deadline extension as it looks at Govt proposal
Transport for London (TfL) was granted a week extension of the current government funding.
The public body was given until 3 August while it continues to revise a £3.6bn proposal put on the plate by transport secretary Grant Shapps last Friday.
“We are considering whether the proposal from the government meets that need and if not the very difficult set of choices we would need to make,” said TfL’s commissioner Andy Byford.
“There are some significant issues we need to discuss with the government in terms of deliverability and the need to avert managed decline of the capital’s transport network in both the short and longer terms.”
Byford added that TfL – which needs an additional £927m for the remainder of the year to fully function – has met all the conditions set by ministers.
Compared to international operators, the TfL network relies on fare revenues rather than government support and as a result of the pandemic, the public body saw its finances battered.
“There can be no UK recovery without a London recovery and that there can be no London recovery without a properly funded transport network,” Byford said.
The announcement follows Shapps’s tweet from last night which stated the long-term funding proposal was the government’s final offer.
“I’ve offered TfL a settlement that supports £3.6 billion worth of projects, matching the Mayor’s own spending plans from 2019,” the secretary wrote. “This is our final offer which more than delivers for London while being fair to UK taxpayers.”
If it were to go ahead, a long-term funding deal will prevent TfL from triggering a “managed decline” scenario, which would include a host of bus route cuts and underground service reductions.