Some TfL services will be disrupted over August bank holiday weekend.
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)TfL has been given one week to decide whether to accept the Government’s “final offer” of a long-term funding settlement.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps confirmed on Thursday evening he had accepted TfL’s request to extend the existing £200 million bailout agreed in February until Wednesday August 3 while officials pore over the draft long-term deal.
In order to keep bus and Tube services running for the next year, TfL requires an additional £927 million, as well as billions of pounds to deliver capital projects such as the Bakerloo Line extension and Tube fleet renewals.
Mr Shapps said the offer on the table includes £3.6 billion to deliver such projects, though TfL Commissioner Andy Byford told the TfL board earlier this week that the figure is “not all new money” and includes money already committed such as business rates.
Without the cash it needs, London’s transport network is facing a managed decline scenario that would see bus services cut by 18 per cent and Tube services slashed by nine per cent.
Mr Byford has said he is “determined” to avoid such a scenario but “not at any cost” and stressed there could be “difficult choices” to make.
Members of the RMT union have announced plans to strike on August 19 over TfL’s “refusal” to disclose details of what is included in the draft settlement, amid fears that the Government may try to impose massive cuts to jobs and pensions.
But Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has stressed the details have only been kept private because of “market sensitive” information contained within the draft settlement.
Mr Khan has urged the union to “reconsider” strike action and said their concerns over jobs, conditions and pensions are at the “fore of our mind” as the Government’s offer is considered.
