Mayor Warns TfL Services May Be Cut Due To A Funding Gap
The title of this post, is the same as that of this article on the BBC.
This is the first two paragraphs.
The Mayor of London has warned tube and bus services may be axed due to a £1.9 billion funding gap.
Sadiq Khan claims bus services could be cut by a fifth and tube services by almost 10%.
If these cuts should happen, I would seriously have to think about moving out of London.
I knew that his bribe of a Fare Freeze would end in tears for someone, but not for everyone.
The Anonymous Widower 
Yes, but where would you move to. About 6 weeks ago Arriva unilaterally declared that they were closing the bus depot in Guildford and withdrawing from a number of routes within a twenty mile radius.
The result has been that Surrey County Council and the local councils were running about like headless chickens, finally announcing that Stagecoach would assume responsibility. We now have to get used to a rejigged set of routes and a new set of timetables. As for a reliable bus service between 0700 and 2200, well given it’s been unreliable for the last twenty years I can’t see it getting any better.
Unlike London there is no coherent Guildford bus network that permits seamless travel for younger people throughout the Guildford area and of course no use of a Freedom Pass that in many London boroughs permits limited travel on National Rail services.
Comment by fammorris | November 18, 2021 |
TfL has been living beyond its means for a long time, and Covid has just made the crunch sooner. Something had to give, higher fares, reduced concessions or cuts.
Obviously Khan’s a sneaky politician, so he we foretell armageddon before imposing lesser pain – it’s the Labour way…
Comment by R. Mark Clayton | November 18, 2021 |
I forgot to mention in my first post that to get to either of the GP’s surgeries I can attend, public transport involves two buses and a typical journey time including walks to and from the bus stops, taking at least 50 minutes. So far as criticising one particular politician goes I wouldn’t be so partisan, TfL were living beyond their means long before Khan was elected. By any rationale London should be seeing cuts, and should have seen them long before he became mayor, Londoners have been featherbedded for far too long 😉
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-54652907
Anyway where outside of London is this public transport Nirvana that AW may consider moving to. Maybe today’s the day to suggest Bradford 🤭
Comment by fammorris | November 18, 2021 |
Several serious independent commentators exposed Khan’s Fare Freeze for what it was before the election and said that London couldn’t afford it.
I also strongly criticise the way that all London’s Mayors and Council Leaders have allowed too much development on the back of Crossrail, which has overloaded the construction industry and made Crossrail late.
Planning permission should have been given for these developments, with the proviso, that construction couldn’t start until a particular phase of Crossrail opens.
Comment by AnonW | November 18, 2021 |
A bit of frustrated bluster here AW, I think you’ll get over it. Having been following you for about five years now, any move out of London I feel would be detrimental to the amount and the connectivity of the journeys you undertake. Certainly pre-covid anyway and probably getting back to some sort of normality since.
Not wishing personally to show any bias, I do feel Khan would have been elected without the fares freeze bribe; but there we go. Perhaps the current situation wouldn’t seem so bad if the previous incumbent had not signed away the 700 million per year grant TfL got from the Treasury.
But a combination of brexit and covid has f**cked up so much – as expected the government has now confirmed the abandonment of the northern section of HS2. So much for leveling up!
Comment by Dave | November 18, 2021 |
We know all about Khan’s Fare Freeze, next time you can vote him out and replace him with……. who, I don’t expect any other London politician to have some magic bullet and I can’t understand how a future Conservative mayor wouldn’t have to resort to significant cutbacks.
As has been said perhaps the current situation wouldn’t seem so bad if the previous incumbent had not, in 2015, been compelled by a Central Government bent on a policy of fiscal austerity to sign away the grant TfL got from the Treasury. This leaves London as the only Western Capital that receives no direct grant from Government.
Still Osborne was generous he did allow London to retain the tax receipts from TfL’s future income 😂
So where to move to, Nottingham, Oxford seem to be defying the trend towards reduced public transport.
Comment by fammorris | November 18, 2021 |