Forum Topic

TfL's future investment and Sadiq Khan

See below article - the future for TfL looks grim.https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/london-underground-tube-bus-services-cycle-sadiq-khan-b966801.html

Loraine Pemberton ● 888d9 Comments

Rights are a legal construct. You either have them or you do not. Yes, this government has taken away many rights but claim that it is the will of the people.Our responsibilities should centre around challenging a government of any persuasion who take away rights for their own ideological reasons. This is more important now than ever with this nationalist, right-wing corrupt administration.Johnson did a deal with Osborne that ensured that TfL would be stuffed in the future but the deal was expedient for them both at the time.To decide not to recycle is your choice. The government has starved councils, the NHS, the judiciary, Social Care of money. Closing recycling centres as a result is inevitable.

Stewart Jones ● 887d

Do you not think people’s rights are important Philippa?  Ours are currently being eroded at a speed of knots. The effect on me is to not care so much about some of my responsibilities. Hence I will no longer recycle now that our recycling centre is being sold off. You get a lot more out of people if you show them respect

Maggie Dodge ● 887d

Agree with both you and Jeremy. Decisions from the government are made from spite, they would be totally different towards a Tory Mayor.

Vanessa Smith ● 888d

There are a lot of people more concerned with their rights than their responsibilities.  Changes are urgent and our political system lets us down.

Philippa Bond ● 888d

Fair points Jeremy.The thing that exercises me and no doubt others is when our money appears to be wasted by government, local authorities, TfL and so the list goes on.A local example is the ripping up sections of tC9 and rerouting them to how they should have been laid in the first place.I have made a FOI request to ask how much this is costing.

Adrian Irving ● 888d

Quite right. The Prime Minister is using TfL funding, or rather lack of, as a political weapon.

Carl Wynne ● 888d

The government you want to come down hard on an 'inept TfL' is led by a man who spent £53 million on an imaginary bridge.Given the size of the operation a £12 million bonus pool doesn't seem excessive. TfL is a large operation that needs a wide range of skills not just civil engineers but lawyers, accountants and IT professionals who would need to be well remunerated in this very tight labour market. Like all large organisations there will be waste and higher level pay in the public sector is structurally too high in this country but, even if the bonuses paid out were totally unearned this is a tiny part of TfL's budget.There simply isn't anyway that a transport network in a large city can be run at a profit. All mass public transport receives a subsidy and obviously the need for that subsidy has risen because of the lost revenue due to the pandemic. The government is playing games with its brinkmanship over TfL's funding and is using it to effectively take control of transport in London. I think Michael is being to sanguine about this round of negotiations. Boris Johnson is getting criticism about going back on pledges made on schemes in the north and midlands despite investing £96 billion in those regions. He is likely to feel that having London squealing about a lack of investment and bus and tube service reductions will play well in his 'red wall' seats. Therefore I would anticipate a very harsh settlement which will mean we will be paying more for a deteriorating service.

Jeremy Parkinson ● 888d

"The Standard’s revelation this week that TfL has reintroduced up to £12m a year of bonuses for executives could harm its ability to negotiate a generous Government bail-out when its third deal runs out on December 11."Hopefully the Government will come down hard on the inept management of TfL.

Steve Taylor ● 888d

No difference from all the previous budget settlements... negotiations go down to the wire and media releases about what will happen if agreement isn't reached.Setting a budget every 6 months is no basis for long term planning so hopefully this will be the last and future settlements will be longer term.For those who have wishful thinking this will affect plans for Cycleway 9, TfL won't be starting construction on the sections west of Kew Bridge until there is funding for available for this.  I believe funding for the C9 works on CHR, King St and Hammersmith gyratory was all part of the previous budget settlement so these plans won't be affected.

Michael Robinson ● 888d