Monday essay: the price TfL must pay to survive
When the Transport for London board meets tomorrow, it will be entering a new era, because there will be two special representatives from the Department for Transport at the meeting. Their presence – on video link – is the price TfL and the Mayor of London have had to pay for last month’s bailout, worth up to £1.9 billion. But, as Sim Harris explains, TfL is meant to be a devolved authority. Isn’t inserting two people from the ministry into discussions at board level rather blurring the lines? And will the people of London be any better off?
The death of a Govia Thameslink Railway staff member from Covid-19 is no longer being linked to an alleged incident at London Victoria on 21 March, in which a man was reported to have spat and coughed at two workers on the concourse.
The complete fleet of 58 new Stadler trains for Greater Anglia should be in service by the summer. The order, for a total of 378 vehicles and worth some £600 million, has been financed by pension funds and insurance companies.
A bold plan costed at £2.7 billion for the area around the HS2 hub in the East Midlands has been published by a group of councils, transport bodies and East Midlands Airport. The core of the scheme is the future East Midlands Hub at Toton, and the plan proposes direct access to the Hub from more than 20 cities, towns and villages in the East Midlands.
The new transport commissioner for London has been named as Andy Byford, who will be replacing the present commissioner Mike Brown next month.
Trains and stations on Govia Thameslink Railway are being treated with a new disinfectant which should give protection from Covid-19 for up to 30 days.
Bomnbardier is reported to be asking for ‘contractual charges’ to be suspended because the pandemic interrupted production for a while at Litchurch Lane in Derby, where 2,000 people are employed.