Hundreds of jobs will be axed and major schemes shelved under Transport for London’s 10-year business plan.
A number of proposed schemes valued at more than £3.7bn, including the Thames Gateway Bridge and Cross River Tram, will not be progressed. Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said he was ‘not stopping the schemes, just stopping the deception’ that funding existed for them in the first place.
Instead, TfL’s business plan will focus on building Crossrail, the upgrade of the Tube, extensions to the DLR and London overground networks, and securing a legacy for the 2012 Olympic Games. Johnson also pledged to lead a revolution in cycling and walking, and provide greater flexibility for London’s boroughs to deliver local transport solutions.
A £2.4bn efficiency drive would help deliver the plan, resulting in the loss of ‘several hundred jobs’ at TfL. However, he said thousands of other jobs would be created to deliver the key projects.
There will also be a major review of the way the bus network is managed and procured, but Johnson denied he would be cutting bus capacity – instead, there would be a steady increase. However, he was unable to pinpoint a date when Routemaster-style buses – which he pledges to reinstate in favour of bendy buses – would be back.
The mayor said he was still looking into alternatives for the Thames Gateway Bridge, which ‘simply hasn’t been thought through’ and was not environmentally friendly. He said it would be ‘hugely expensive’ to try to overturn the planning inspector’s verdict (Surveyor, 2 August 2007), but insisted he would still consider an alternative crossing, perhaps at Silvertown. Other schemes to be shelved include the Croydon Tramlink extension, Oxford Street tram, East London and Greenwich Waterfront transits, and public space proposals (see above).
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