Brown seeks reinstatement of TfL operating subsidy

Transport for London’s Commissioner Mike Brown is pushing for the Government to help fund Transport for London, after admitting that revenue earned from London Underground has to be used to pay for the upkeep of London’s road network.

The current 2018-19 financial year marks the first time that TfL will not receive grants from the Government to operate. Last year, it received £228 million from the Government. The subsidy used to stand at around £700m a year.

“We are in the ridiculous situation now where those paying to use the Tube are subsidising the strategic road network in London, because I have no other income in which to fund it,’ Brown told delegates at a Westminster Forum Projects conference on London’s transport system.

“That, from any transport perspective, is insane, and we will continue to make the case to the Treasury and Government more broadly.”

Brown claimed TfL is the only major transport authority in the western world not to receive any financial help from a central Government.

Despite the funding cuts imposed on TfL, Brown said an independent affordability study into the cost of Crossrail 2 is “going on at the moment”. He hopes this will allow the scheme to progress, adding that the new rail link would benefit not just the capital but also the rest of the country, especially in the North.

“The success of London as a great world city is surely enhanced by the great northern cities. The success of cities, wherever they are in the UK, contributes to London’s success in a global context,” he said.

However, he stated it was critical that Crossrail 2 is built correctly, claiming he “hasn’t forgiven” his forebears for building the Victoria Line in a tunnel that is “too narrow and too deep”, adding: “I don’t want someone to be sitting here in decades to come saying ‘if only Mike Brown had built Crossrail 2 to the right size, we’d all be alright’.”

Brown ruled out any further extension projects before the groundworks have begun, saying: “I like to build things and extend them later. I don’t know anyone who builds a new house and while building it is planning for the first extension. Normally they build the house and adjust it in the fullness of time.”