黑洞社区

Transport for London has been told to make its capital project priorities public, as its ongoing financial woes continue to threaten future schemes.

In its response to London mayor Sadiq Khan鈥檚 draft budget for 2019-2020 the London Assembly鈥檚 budget and performance committee has said the cash-strapped transport authority should come clean about which projects are on the chopping block. 

In its latest set of results, published last May, TfL reported that its operating deficit worsened by 26% to 拢1bn.

The committee said: 鈥淭here may be more postponed or cancelled projects in future years, particularly if the revenue position does not go exactly as TfL says it will.

鈥淭fL says that uncertainty means it has to re-prioritise its capital programme. It has colour-coded its capital programme, with projects labelled in descending order of importance from 鈥榗ritical鈥�, to 鈥榗entral鈥�, to 鈥榙esirable鈥� or to 鈥榙eprioritise鈥�. We think this exercise should be public.

鈥淭fL is cancelling capital projects and Londoners deserve to know which projects might be at risk.鈥�

The committee said it had 鈥渟pecific and serious concerns鈥� that TfL鈥檚 business plan, which it identified critical issues with, signalled a downward trajectory for the organisation, with 鈥渟ervices curtailed, and planned modernisation programmes delayed or cancelled鈥�.

It also flagged Crossrail as a further barrier to future projects, including Crossrail 2, saying the delay to its launch and budget increases 鈥渕ay have significant ramifications that have not yet started to emerge鈥�.