TRANSPORT for London’s new Business Plan is being considered by its board today, but new savings outlined by the Mayor of London Boris Johnson have dismayed and angered the unions. 

They have already been campaigning vigorously against previous economies, such as shortening the opening hours of ticket offices at suburban Underground stations.

Mr Johnson is promising the greatest investment in London’s transport network since the 1930s, after he said he had identified ‘staggering’ efficiencies amounting to £7.6 billion. The previous cuts target had been £5 billion.

The Mayor said that under his plans three Underground lines will be fully upgraded, new trains brought into service on five lines – including the complete replacement of subsurface rolling stock – progress would continue on Crossrail and London Overground would be completed by the addition of the route from Surrey Quays to Clapham Junction.

However Light Rail does not figure largely in his plans, with no extensions planned for the Docklands Light Railway or Tramlink.

Away from rail, the second-generation Routemaster bus will come into service and the bicycle hire network would be extended.

The Mayor commented: “The staggering £7.6 billion in savings and efficiencies TfL is making means that every penny will be spent on delivering and upgrading services for the capital, providing even better value for money to fare and taxpayers.”

But the unions see the figures in a different light. The RMT said the addition of more than £2 billion in additional economies ‘defied belief’.

The union’s general secretary Bob Crow said: “These new cuts will drag the Underground even deeper into the spiral of decline, with breakdowns, failures and disruption a daily fact of life.

“We can expect a threat to hundreds more jobs while maintenance takes another hit, turning the Underground into a death trap and a criminals' paradise.

“Security and safety will be be compromised in the run-up to the Olympics and RMT is demanding a halt to this cuts carnage beneath the London streets before it is too late.”

Another of Mr Johnson’s critics is former Mayor Ken Livingstone, who is opposing him again in the May elections.

Mr Livingstone said: “The Mayor’s plans for transport increasingly involve aggressively squeezing the farepayer, combined with cuts to funding for the bus service and cuts that must start to hit frontline services.

“Once again, broken promises are the order of the day. Just last week Boris Johnson suggested he might reverse his own cut to the Croydon Tramlink extension, but this week there is no sign of that project in his business plan.”