Transport for London will "declare itself bankrupt" by end of today (14 May 2020) without emergency finance

[Mojo]

So I’m guessing that the Tube and buses will be running tomorrow? A deal must have been thrashed out otherwise the news about TFL withdrawing services would’ve been reported by now...

Press release has just come out stating that a 6 month deal has been reached.

£1.8 Billio of government grants and loans for TfL.

TfL have agreed to make £160 Million of savings (no detail on what this is yet).

Free / reduced travel for under 18s and over 60s to be retained, but going forward to be funded most likely by increased council tax.

“Temporary” changes to Congestion Charge to be consulted upon and become permanent.

 

[bramling]

Press release has just come out stating that a 6 month deal has been reached.

Will be interesting to see what strings are attached. Notwithstanding the congestion charge, there's been some rather unpleasant rumours circulating regarding TFL staff pensions. Not exactly the best way to thank a group of "key workers" who have worked unfailingly through this year.

 

[big_rig]

None of the proposals in the letter have been adopted, but £160m of savings required and additional council tax or other revenue raises need to be found to protect free travel etc.

Mayor's press releases

View press releases from the Mayor of London

www.london.gov.uk

Mayor sees off plan to extend C-Charge as deal reached on TfL funding

The Mayor of London has reached an agreement with the Government on a funding deal to keep transport services running

www.london.gov.uk

• Six-month deal means £1.8 billion of Government grant and borrowing made available on current projections to Transport for London (TfL) to keep services running until March 2021
• Mayor rejects government plans for huge extension of the Congestion Charge zone, scrapping free travel for older and younger Londoners and increasing TfL fares by more than previously agreed
• Transport for London to make £160m of savings this financial year, and City Hall will need to raise additional income to protect concessions for older and younger Londoners for future years - if the Mayor wants to continue these
• Mayor says deal is ‘not ideal’ but adds that he fought hard against the Government’s determination to punish London

 

[bramling]

None of the proposals in the letter have been adopted, but £160m of savings required and additional council tax or other revenue raises need to be found to protect free travel etc.

Mayor sees off plan to extend C-Charge as deal reached on TfL funding

The Mayor of London has reached an agreement with the Government on a funding deal to keep transport services running

www.london.gov.uk

So another Boris botch-up. One wonders how many Conservative votes the Boris v Khan floor-show has cost.

 

[tarq]

Mayor sees off plan to extend C-Charge as deal reached on TfL funding

The Mayor of London has reached an agreement with the Government on a funding deal to keep transport services running

www.london.gov.uk

I’m getting

Sorry - you cannot access this content
This page may now be unpublished.

I wonder if the GLA press dept has jumped the gun?

 

[big_rig]

I’m getting

Sorry - you cannot access this content
This page may now be unpublished.

I wonder if the GLA press dept has jumped the gun?

Ah, thank you - I see they have changed the wording of the headline which may have affected the link - I’ve included the list of all press releases as well to be sure.

A BBC journalist has also noted the deal was signed at 23:45 last night!

 

[tarq]

It’s working again now

A BBC journalist has also noted the deal was signed at 23:45 last night!

Where was this, in an article or on Twitter? Have you got the link?

 

[big_rig]

It’s working again now



Where was this, in an article or on Twitter? Have you got the link?

Ah I see! Yes, Tom Edwards on Twitter, he’s well worth a follow on London transport.

The other point of note is this deal was only signed at 2345 last night - 15mins before the deadline.

https://twitter.com/bbctomedwards/status/1322822474044743680?s=21

 

[WatcherZero]

£905m of grant (which will be reduced if revenue exceeds expectations)
£95m loan
TFL must make £160m of savings.

Congestion charge 30% increase and longer operating hours agreed in June under the first deal made permanent.
Governments deadline for TfL to make other changes to increase its revenue and plug its budget shortfall delayed until the end of the financial year.

 

[matt_world2004]

£905m of grant (which will be reduced if revenue exceeds expectations)
£95m loan
TFL must make £160m of savings.

Congestion charge 30% increase and longer operating hours agreed in June under the first deal made permanent.
Governments deadline for TfL to make other changes to increase its revenue and plug its budget shortfall delayed until the end of the financial year.

That's quite a climbdown from the original proposal it looks like the original proposal was politking now

 

[telstarbox]

The North / South Circular extension to the CC now looks pretty untenable if they're asking people to stay at home, avoid public transport but go to work in manufacturing and construction (i.e. not office jobs).

 

[hwl]

That's quite a climbdown from the original proposal it looks like the original proposal was politking now

Yesterday's "lockdown 2 lite" announcement from Boris undermined the last of the DfT /governments legs to stand on in negotiations so they pretty much had to cave on everything.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

The DfT announcement says TfL fares will rise RPI+1% in January.
The junior/senior concession will be funded by DfT up to the English national level.
Anything over that to be funded by the Mayor.

[Withdrawn] Government bailout to keep London transport running

An additional £1.7 billion government funding and financing package for Transport for London.

www.gov.uk

National taxpayers will also continue to fund free travel concessions to standard English levels and free travel to school for children who qualify under national legislation. Nearly all the package will be grants and £95 million will be loans.
The Mayor has also chosen to make £160 million in savings over the next 6 months in TfL and raise fares by RPI+1%.
The Mayor has further stated that, if he wishes to maintain Londoners’ concessions above the English level, he will raise the money to pay for them himself. If he decides to do this, he will come forward with a plan to raise revenue to fund this.

 

[WatcherZero]

The RPI+1% fare rise was agreed as part of the June Settlement, TfL had previously had a four year fares freeze.
National rail fares are going up RPI+0% after the government cancelled the usual above inflation increase.

 

[Mojo]

TfL had previously had a four year fares freeze.

Only single fares and multi-journey bus passes were frozen, and this did not include most journeys on TfL Rail/Overground on the lines that run to and from Liverpool St. The majority of journeys on LU at least are done with Travelcards, which increased every year.

 

[hwl]

The detail of the deal:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/931802/transport-for-london-settlement-letter.pdf

 

[HSTEd]

So six months, what will Boris want in March?

 

[BRX]

The grant funding for operations that TfL gets fluctuates considerably from year to year - the table below shows the figures presented in the annual accounts in £million. The 2014 GLA grant figures also includes other revenue grant most (all?) comes from the GLA each year.

	2012​	2013​	2014​	2015​	2016​	2017​	2018​	2019​	2020​
DfT grant	1634.1​	2058.2​	632.8​	104.4​	40.9​	311.2​	255.1​	27.1​	27.1​
GLA grant from business rate retention			846​	828.5​	772.5​	854.3​	1036.5​	1704​	913.5​
Other revenue grant	67.7​	148.8​		132​	28.9​	19.6​	50.8​	93.8​	89.9​
Council tax precept	6​	6​	6​	6​	6​	6​	6​	6​	6​
	1707.8​	2213​	1484.8​	1070.9​	848.3​	1191.1​	1348.4​	1830.9​	1036.5​

Thanks for that.

As you say - the amounts are not consistent - but shows a very clear shift from DfT to GLA.

It's of interest to me in the context of the usual arguments you see about "road tax" - the standard procedure is for drivers to complain about changes to roads that, say, give a bit more space to cyclists, and say that they are paying "road tax" to use the roads so which is space being given away. And then the standard answer is that there's no such thing as "road tax" - only VED and tax on fuel, neither of which directly determine the amount of funding that goes into building and maintaining the road infrastructure. And that's true, but it can always be said that drivers pay into a pot of money (central government tax) and out of that same pot, in the broadest terms, comes the money that pays for the road network, at least the trunk network.

But in London the equivalent of the "trunk network" is looked after by TfL. And it seems to me that because TfL now barely receives any grant from central government... it's quite fully uncoupled from VED and fuel tax revenue. In other words... if car drivers somehow suddenly stopped paying either of those, there would not be a direct impact on TfL's funding sources. In fact, London's "trunk" roads are effectively paid for out of a pot of money, most of which comes either from public transport farebox revenue, or from local business rates.

 

[WatcherZero]

The amount of national funding London receives from Westminster has stayed pretty consistently above the national average however.

Table A.15 UK identifiable expenditure on services by function, country and region, per head (1), 2014-15 to 2018-19 (continued)
Data in this table from 2014-15 to 2018-19 are National Statistics																£ per head
	1. General public services	of which: public and common services	of which: international services	2. Defence	3. Public order and safety	4. Economic affairs	of which: enterprise and economic development	of which: science and technology	of which: employment policies	of which: agriculture, fisheries and forestry	of which: transport	5. Environment protection	6. Housing and community amenities	7. Health	8. Recreation, culture and religion	9. Education	10. Social protection	Total Expenditure on Services
2018-19
North East	95	94	2	1	489	840	120	81	66	87	486	113	159	2,445	95	1,333	4,612		10,183
North West	81	79	2	1	451	724	130	81	49	52	412	362	103	2,460	101	1,239	4,343		9,865
Yorkshire and The Humber	71	69	2	0	441	624	117	88	55	89	276	115	164	2,203	99	1,325	4,082		9,123
East Midlands	76	74	2	1	399	618	126	89	44	91	268	106	108	2,022	86	1,245	3,941		8,601
West Midlands	98	96	2	1	405	763	110	82	50	54	467	99	123	2,244	87	1,325	4,098		9,242
East	107	105	2	1	373	830	137	94	27	78	493	150	129	2,031	83	1,266	3,767		8,736
London	77	75	2	1	693	1,280	222	101	42	11	903	124	272	2,773	126	1,473	3,606		10,425
South East	117	115	2	1	359	861	261	95	25	59	422	119	133	2,021	86	1,226	3,678		8,601
South West	92	90	2	1	360	708	156	99	20	125	308	156	102	2,109	87	1,165	4,131		8,910
England	91	89	2	1	448	836	165	91	40	66	474	155	149	2,269	96	1,292	3,959		9,296
Scotland	235	233	2	1	521	1,269	287	128	49	164	642	231	409	2,396	187	1,558	4,439		11,247
Wales	171	169	2	1	453	892	205	84	42	166	395	198	260	2,402	165	1,365	4,749		10,656
Northern Ireland	209	208	2	-	662	959	212	48	53	291	354	135	411	2,436	281	1,476	5,020		11,590
UK identifiable expenditure	110	108	2	1	460	877	178	93	41	85	481	163	182	2,291	112	1,323	4,066		9,584

Country and regional analysis: 2019

Statistical estimates for the allocation of identifiable expenditure between the UK countries and 9 English regions.

www.gov.uk

Anyway back to the matter at hand. According to the settlement letter TfL has agreed that expansion of the Congestion zone to the north and south circular will come into effect on 25 October 2021. Working group on driverless trains with Dft able to appoint its own experts to the study. TfL has to contribute £4m to fixing Hammersmith Bridge.

 

[Mikey C]

Anyway back to the matter at hand. According to the settlement letter TfL has agreed that expansion of the Congestion zone to the north and south circular will come into effect on 25 October 2021. Working group on driverless trains with Dft able to appoint its own experts to the study. TfL has to contribute £4m to fixing Hammersmith Bridge.

No it doesn't, that date relates to the extension of the ULEZ. There's NO extension of the Congestion Charge

 

[WatcherZero]

Sorry I will rephrase that, on that date the ULEZ will be expanding from the borders of the Congestion Zone to the North and South Circular.

 

[Mikey C]

Sorry I will rephrase that, on that date the ULEZ will be expanding from the borders of the Congestion Zone to the North and South Circular.

Which has been planned all along

And while the ULEZ will bring in some revenue, that's not the primary purpose of it, which is to improve air quality

 

[Snow1964]

More details are now coming out, some of which were not in the Press release

Crossrail 2 has been suspended (killed for time being ?) as all consultants and development funding is stopped as part of the bailout

 

[matt_world2004]

More details are now coming out, some of which were not in the Press release

Crossrail 2 has been suspended (killed for time being ?) as all consultants and development funding is stopped as part of the bailout

New civil engineer reports that crossrail 2 talks are still ongoing.

 

[BRX]

The amount of national funding London receives from Westminster has stayed pretty consistently above the national average however.

As far as transport is concerned though - London's transport is used by very large numbers of commuters and other visitors, who don't live in London, so the "per head" measure is a bit misleading.

 

[Mikey C]

As far as transport is concerned though - London's transport is used by very large numbers of commuters and other visitors, who don't live in London, so the "per head" measure is a bit misleading.

Agreed, it needs to be looked at alongside expenditure for the regions around London

 

[Boo_]

So outcome is 1.8bn bailout. until March 2021

But is going to Cost London
£50 a year in Council tax
and the C charge is going to carry on being a 7 day a week charge with the only time you can drive inside free will be 10.01pm to 6.59am

it a bit of a joke really TFL and local powers needs to wake up.

Bus fares are too cheap. £4.50 for a day ticket cost`s ( £6 in Manchester)
The £1.50 1 hour ticket is too cheap should be £2.50 ( bus fares in Manchester about £2 to £5 )

Tube tickets in my view are ok. should really be more pushed onto tube over buses. if people can walk to tube that good.

 

[Daniel740]

So outcome is 1.8bn bailout. until March 2021

But is going to Cost London
£50 a year in Council tax
and the C charge is going to carry on being a 7 day a week charge with the only time you can drive inside free will be 10.01pm to 6.59am

it a bit of a joke really TFL and local powers needs to wake up.

Bus fares are too cheap. £4.50 for a day ticket cost`s ( £6 in Manchester)
The £1.50 1 hour ticket is too cheap should be £2.50 ( bus fares in Manchester about £2 to £5 )

Tube tickets in my view are ok. should really be more pushed onto tube over buses. if people can walk to tube that good.

Or you could argue that fares in Manchester are too steep, there are times especially on the old First routes where a day ticket is cheaper than a single fare.

 

[HSTEd]

All raising bus fares is likely to achieve is driving patronage on the buses further down and making the moeny pit even worse.

TfL are just trying to run an oversized network with nowhere near enough people on it.

Not much can be done beyond that beyond starting to take the axe to services.

 

[telstarbox]

So outcome is 1.8bn bailout. until March 2021

But is going to Cost London
£50 a year in Council tax
and the C charge is going to carry on being a 7 day a week charge with the only time you can drive inside free will be 10.01pm to 6.59am

it a bit of a joke really TFL and local powers needs to wake up.

Bus fares are too cheap. £4.50 for a day ticket cost`s ( £6 in Manchester)
The £1.50 1 hour ticket is too cheap should be £2.50 ( bus fares in Manchester about £2 to £5 )

Tube tickets in my view are ok. should really be more pushed onto tube over buses. if people can walk to tube that good.

London buses aren't too cheap, especially for the low paid workers who rely on them. Manchester buses are too expensive for a worse overall service.