DfT drops calls for driverless trains in London

A DEMAND by the Government that Transport for London (TfL) explore the use of driverless trains to reduce costs appears to have been quietly dropped after the cost of moving to the practice was revealed.

In July 2020, as the pandemic took hold and TfL began to seek emergency funding, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “You can run these trains without the need for somebody to be sitting in the driver’s cab.”

“Let’s not be the prisoners of the unions anymore,” he added. “Let’s go to driverless trains and let’s make that a condition of the funding settlement for Transport for London this autumn.”

At the time, drivers’ union ASLEF responded by calling the proposal “nonsense”, but the Government suggested an “expert-led review” into driverless trains as a condition of providing £1.7 billion of support for TfL.

Launching his 2021 reelection campaign, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan confirmed the Government abandoned its plan after it was revealed the cost would be about £7 billion and poor value for money.