Transport
for London’s (TfL’s) proposed Budget 2016/17 and Business Plan has been
published, setting out a wide range of further improvements to the
transport network in the coming years.
The
document shows how investment in the public transport network will
continue to deliver significant improvements for customers. These
include:
·
The continuing construction of
Crossrail, which will revolutionise travel across London when it opens
as the Elizabeth line in 2018.
·
The
huge transformation of London Underground currently underway, with
major stations being rebuilt, the Northern and Metropolitan lines being
extended, and the Metropolitan, District,
Circle and Hammersmith & City lines being modernised with a new
signalling system to run more services.
·
Preparations for the introduction of 24 hour weekend ‘Night Tube’ services on key lines.
·
Doubling the station accessibility
fund from £75 million to £150 million, making more stations step-free
and ensuring the Mayor’s target of 50 per cent of rail and Tube stations
being
made step-free by 2018 is on-track.
·
Electrification of the Gospel Oak to
Barking London Overground line and work to extend London Overground to
Barking riverside, alongside station improvements at stations taken over
from West Anglia last year.
In addition, TfL is progressing the priorities set out in the GLA Budget published in February 2016.
These include:
·
Doubling TfL’s Growth Fund from £300 million to £600 million to help unlock further growth and regeneration across London.
·
£250 million towards two new
Overground stations at Old Oak Common providing connections to the
planned Old Oak Common HS2, Crossrail and national rail stations
and regeneration to
the local area.
·
£100
million towards a potential extension of the tram network to Sutton if
the remaining funding shortfall can be addressed by reducing the
scheme’s cost or increasing the local
contribution from development.
·
Establishing a £20 million road
safety technology fund to develop new road safety and autonomous vehicle
technologies in London and help meet the target of reducing the most
serious
road casualties by 50 per cent.
Further
major improvements are also planned on the Capital’s roads as part of a
£4 billion Road Modernisation Plan. This is seeing major roads and
junctions
transformed and made safer, with assets renewed and new safety and
‘congestion-busting’ technology introduced. The road network is being
made safer for all road users, with new bus safety programmes and nearly
£1 billion of planned investment in making cycling
safer.
This range of roads improvements includes:
·
The completion of eight Cycle Superhighway Routes by summer 2016, comprising more than 60km of new cycling infrastructure.
·
The completion of improvement work at Elephant & Castle, including a newly created peninsular public space.
·
The introduction of vital safety improvements at Bow Interchange.
·
Work scheduled to begin on a further five Quietway cycle routes, in addition to the two currently under construction.
·
The
completion of further ‘mini-Holland’ cycling infrastructure projects in
Waltham Forest, Enfield Town and Kingston upon Thames.
A
range of measures to improve air quality, including the creation of an
Ultra Low Emission Zone are being progressed. The National
Infrastructure Commission
has now also given its full support to Crossrail 2, showing that it is
absolutely vital to meeting the needs of London’s population, which is
expected to grow from 8.6 million today to 10 million in 2030. We are
also working with the Government on transferring
all inner London rail services to TfL, opening up huge opportunities to
improve services on those routes.
TfL is also planning the modernisation of the deep-level Tube lines, with a ‘New Tube for London’ set to bring air-conditioned journeys to the Piccadilly, Bakerloo, central and Waterloo & City lines. The extension of the Bakerloo line would help meet the anticipated growth in south London, and the building of new river crossings and the creation of new road tunnels will help reduce congestion and support thousands of new homes and jobs.
The
Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “Our transport system is carrying
half a billion more people than four years ago, whilst doing so more
efficiently,
reliably and safely - and with greater customer satisfaction – than at
any other time in London’s history. Delays on the Underground have been
halved, we’ve introduced 191 British-made new air-conditioned trains,
cycling is at a record high, transport crime
at a record low and the number of people killed or seriously injured on
our roads has been cut by 40 per cent.
“This
budget and plan lays the foundation to continue these significant
improvements on both our roads and public transport network. These,
alongside
future Government investment, will ensure that we can cope with
rapidly increasing demand and support the new homes and jobs for future
generations of Londoners.”
Mike
Brown, London’s Transport Commissioner, said: “We are continuing the
work of transforming London’s road, rail and Tube networks for the
millions
of people who use them every day while making every pound go further
through a continuous savings and efficiencies programme."
To
mitigate a reduction in Government funding, TfL is implementing
measures both to reduce expenditure and to increase income. These
include projects
to generate new commercial income and grow existing revenue streams as
well as to reduce operating costs. The objective is to reach break even
on direct operating costs by 2018/19, earlier than anticipated in the
2014 Business Plan. TfL is seeking to reduce
operating costs by nearly nine per cent over the next five years.
TfL
is also identifying value engineering options on new investment
projects and targeting programme cost reductions of 10 per cent through
better cost
management. This will reduce the annual cost of capital renewals while
not allowing assets to degrade.
