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

[Vespa]

Khan has tried to play political football with the big players and got owned.

Personally I'm not a big fan of him, talks a lot and does little.

 

[Nym]

Full article from “The Sun”

Sadiq Khan hands 'control' of capital's transport to Govt for £1.6bn bailout

LONDON Mayor Sadiq Khan crumbled yesterday after he handed significant control of the capital’s transport system to the Government in exchange for a £1.6billion bailout. Mr Khan had threatened to p…

www.thesun.co.uk

"The Metropolatain Line Was Busy This Morning"
With two photos, both of the Jubilee Line...

Got to love the quality of the sun.

 

[MotCO]

If it is a Snapps v Khan power struggle, then the Minister should be careful not to wrestle too much power away from the Mayor, for the simple reason if there is ever a Labour government with a Tory Mayor, then the Tory Mayor would feel too impotent.

Also, what does the Mayor control apart from transport? If there's nothing significant, what will the GLA and Mayor do if too much power is taken away?

 

[Tube driver]

It's a "plan" to return to 100% timetable - based on reports from members here about how many staff are shielding, actually accomplishing said plan will be another matter altogether. Also worth mentioning that they're advising avoiding public transport, but at the same time the expectation is that people will still need to use it, particularly as more return to work. The more services are running, the better from a social-distancing point of view.

Well, we’re back to operating normal pre-Covid timetables from Sunday but everyone I’ve spoken to thinks that it won’t last in any meaningful form. My depot alone next week has about 70% coverage so it’ll be fun to say the least and that’s before we get into stuff like social distancing...

 

[Class83]

Khan has tried to play political football with the big players and got owned.

Personally I'm not a big fan of him, talks a lot and does little.

I think he's ok, but sometimes fails to realise that he runs what is effectively a very big council, all English councils have been very keen to spend money, but don't have revenue powers to back what they're doing. Sturgeon has her own legal system and has increasing tax and borrowing powers.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I think he's ok, but sometimes fails to realise that he runs what is effectively a very big council, all English councils have been very keen to spend money, but don't have revenue powers to back what they're doing. Sturgeon has her own legal system and has increasing tax and borrowing powers.

He doesn't even do that. He has far less power than a Council (certainly less than the City of London Corporation) - he basically controls TfL and not a lot else.

 

[peri]

Privatizing everything might bring in lots of much needed cash. Just think of all the different liveried buses, tube trains etc. Two or three companies fighting it out on Northern alone, watching tube trains go past waiting for yours to turn up.
Definitely win votes everywhere bar London.

 

[NewcastleBrown]

Khan has tried to play political football with the big players and got owned.

I'm not really sure that either side have actually lost anything once you take away all the political noise.

The fare rise was already in TfL's business plan, and now he can blame the government for it and the only other real thing is a government official in 'attendance' at the board, which as long as they are a civil servant and have no voting rights is not a massive thing to give away.

And on the government side they've stopped the system from falling over and incurring the wrath of suburb voters in particular without making it look too generous - to be honest, they would have been better off bailing it out as part of the ToC package so that it looked more 'national' then this did, but this probably still gets them away with it

 

[yorkie]

A resolution has been reached:

Government agrees £1.6bn London transport bailout

Sadiq Khan agrees to quickly restore a full Tube service under the terms of the emergency agreement.

www.bbc.co.uk

Transport for London (TfL) has secured £1.6bn in emergency funding to keep Tube and bus services running until September.

Under the bailout's terms, London mayor Sadiq Khan is expected to restore a full Underground service as soon as possible.

He is also understood to have offered a 1% above-inflation fare rise in future.

BBC London Political Editor Tim Donovan said other measures agreed include:

• Placing Stay Alert advertising on the transport network
• Reporting staff absenteeism rates to civil servants
• A longer-term review of TfL finances.

The BBC has been told a £500m loan agreed with the Department for Transport forms part of the total....

 

[bramling]

It's a "plan" to return to 100% timetable - based on reports from members here about how many staff are shielding, actually accomplishing said plan will be another matter altogether. Also worth mentioning that they're advising avoiding public transport, but at the same time the expectation is that people will still need to use it, particularly as more return to work. The more services are running, the better from a social-distancing point of view.

Running a 100% service is essentially impossible with resources as they are, unless anyone has a train operator or two in their back pocket?

Now of course you could *plan* to run a 100% service, this is indeed happening as from next week, and have cancellations as required. This will no doubt be what happens in practice, no doubt with the mayor squirming as each day’s list of cancellations becomes known.

As predicted, TfL got their bail out, we have some strings attached, and it’s all neatly packaged up to make Sadiq Khan look bad.

 

[bramling]

If it is a Snapps v Khan power struggle, then the Minister should be careful not to wrestle too much power away from the Mayor, for the simple reason if there is ever a Labour government with a Tory Mayor, then the Tory Mayor would feel too impotent.

Also, what does the Mayor control apart from transport? If there's nothing significant, what will the GLA and Mayor do if too much power is taken away?

I don’t think the government care too much about the prospect of a Conservative mayor. With the political make-up of London as it is (in other words Conservative major highly unlikely in the foreseeable future, and few parliamentary seats to lose), screwing over Khan is a far better political prize, and a worthwhile one as there’s little to lose.

 

[nidave]

Quite a high price to pay for ordinary passengers, fare rises and a temporary restriction of the Freedom Pass to off peak times, won't play well in the outer boroughs which still vote Tory especially his own constituency...

 

[nidave]

I don’t think the government care too much about the prospect of a Conservative mayor. With the political make-up of London as it is (in other words Conservative major highly unlikely in the foreseeable future, and few parliamentary seats to lose), screwing over Khan is a far better political prize, and a worthwhile one as there’s little to lose.

Quite a few Zone 5 and 6 seats are Tory...

 

[Qwerty133]

Quite a high price to pay for ordinary passengers, fare rises and a temporary restriction of the Freedom Pass to off peak times, won't play well to the outer boroughs which still vote Tory especially his own constituency...

But will play out nicely up north in the newly won conservative seats (where higher fare's and restricted use of ENCTS have long been the norm, despite lower incomes).

 

[onlinespotting]

Let it go bankrupt, it’s basically a PTE. The local authorities would have to pick up the slack

 

[Bletchleyite]

Let it go bankrupt, it’s basically a PTE. The local authorities would have to pick up the slack

It's a lot more than a PTE. PTEs don't directly operate anything.

 

[nidave]

But will play out nicely up north in the newly won conservative seats (where higher fare's and restricted use of ENCTS have long been the norm, despite lower incomes).

I doubt it, I have family in the north-east, they care about as much as affairs in the South as a Londoner does about Newcastle, which is not a lot...

 

[onlinespotting]

It's a lot more than a PTE. PTEs don't directly operate anything.

WYPTE operate and / or pay to operate services and bus services and own rolling stock.
GMPTE operate and / or pay to operate services and bus services and the metro link
Merseyrail......

 

[nidave]

Let it go bankrupt, it’s basically a PTE. The local authorities would have to pick up the slack

Then you'll have the entire capital, and by extension the country, grinding to a halt...

 

[nidave]

WYPTE operate and / or pay to operate services and bus services and own rolling stock.
GMPTE operate and / or pay to operate services and bus services and the metro link
Merseyrail......

WMPTE and GMPTE pay to operate a small number of bus services and the Metrolink is far smaller compared to the tube, DLR,overground,TfL rail and Croydon Tramlink

 

[Qwerty133]

I doubt it, I have family in the north-east, they care about as much as affairs in the South as a Londoner does about Newcastle, which is not a lot...

I think you'll find that many, whilst not caring about the day to day goings on in London, will be extremely pleased at a high profile move which they see as removing some of the unfair privileges held by Londoners.

 

[nidave]

I think you'll find that many, whilst not caring about the day to day goings on in London, will be extremely pleased at a high profile move which they see as removing some of the unfair privileges held by Londoners.

Really, we'll see. I bet next time I visit Middlesbrough or Durham and ask about TfL fare rises I'll get a shrug of the shoulders

 

[Mojo]

WYPTE operate and / or pay to operate services and bus services and own rolling stock.
GMPTE operate and / or pay to operate services and bus services and the metro link
Merseyrail......

TfL is nothing like a ITA (PTE). TfL also doesn’t receive a central government grant despite managing a large road network. This leads to the curious situation in London whereby public transport users are indirectly subsidising road users!

 

[nidave]

If I was Sadiq, I would've refused the bailout and placed all blame on central government. He's got nothing to lose, London is solidly Labour, he could totally shut down the Tube and bus network and still get elected next year.

 

[Nym]

WMPTE and GMPTE pay to operate a small number of bus services and the Metrolink is far smaller compared to the tube, DLR,overground,TfL rail and Croydon Tramlink

TfL don't operate Overground, ARL do.
TfL don't operate TfL Rail, MTR do.
TfL don't operate the DLR, Keolis-Amey do.
TfL don't operate Croydon Tramlink, First Group (Tram Operations Ltd.) do.

TfL technically don't operate LU, LUL does, although it's wholly owned by TfL.

 

[onlinespotting]

The principal is the same. A monopoly game of private companies paying or subsidising or fining each other, ultimately responsible to the tax payer and bails outs or get out clauses or excuses and government or council stepping in to run and fund it when it breaks down.

 

[nidave]

TfL don't operate Overground, ARL do.
TfL don't operate TfL Rail, MTR do.
TfL don't operate the DLR, Keolis-Amey do.
TfL don't operate Croydon Tramlink, First Group (Tram Operations Ltd.) do.

TfL technically don't operate LU, LUL does, although it's wholly owned by TfL.

You know what I meant, no need to be pedantic...

 

[yorkie]

Let it go bankrupt, it’s basically a PTE. The local authorities would have to pick up the slack

Sorry but this is nonsense.

 

[Qwerty133]

If I was Sadiq, I would've refused the bailout and placed all blame on central government. He's got nothing to lose, London is solidly Labour, he could totally shut down the Tube and bus network and still get elected next year.

Even if you believe he is undefeatable in London (which is debatable) overseeing the total collapse of the transport networks in London would do little in the way of boosting his future career prospects after his time as mayor ends and he has to appeal to the electorate outside of London, which I'd imagine are part of his thinking process.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I'm not sure this is the ideal time for a massive reorganisation of TfLs services...

I am positively sure it is not the right time.