Transport for London still needs Government help for major transport projects despite making a £162 million annual “profit”, Sadiq Khan warned on Thursday.
TfL is expected to declare its first ever “operating surplus” at the end of the month – cash it can reinvest in the capital’s public transport network.
However the mayor said this was insufficient for big ticket “capital” projects, such as replacing the 52-year-old trains on the Bakerloo line, the extension of the Bakerloo line to Lewisham and Hayes, new trams in Croydon or Crossrail 2.
Passengers on the Central line are suffering ongoing delays caused by chronic problems with its 32-year-old trains that TfL can only afford to repair rather than replace.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt made no mention in Wednesday’s Budget of a long-term funding deal for TfL.
TfL had been seeking about £500 million a year for four or five years but was handed only a one-year £250 million deal last December.
Mr Khan described the £162 million operating surplus as “fantastic” but told the TfL board: “Let’s be quite clear: Even though this will be a historic year, with an operating surplus, we will not have enough money to invest in rolling stock, to invest in signalling, to invest in major roads and renewal. We really do need a long-term deal from the Government.
“The Central line is a case study for the consequences of a lack of investment. That is coming to the Bakerloo line. We know the challenges with the [Croydon] tram, and extensions to Sutton. We have got ambitions with the Bakerloo line extension and Crossrail 2.”
Passenger numbers on TfL services have risen to 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. Mr Khan hopes these will be further boosted when a three month trial scrapping peak Tube and train fares launches on Friday.
The “operating surplus” has been generated during the 2023/24 financial year largely because of a seven per cent annual growth in TfL journeys – taking passenger numbers to 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, driven largely by the soaring popularity of the Elizabeth line.
Since opening in May 2022 it has become the busiest rail line in the country and carries about 770,000 passengers each weekday.
Earlier this week, TfL chiefs warned there was a “really significant risk of asset failure” due to the age of some train fleets.
TfL commissioner Andy Lord said the “£3 billion turnaround” was an “almighty achievement” and “quite a momentous moment in TfL’s history”.
He said the scale of TfL’s financial recovery had been unthinkable during the pandemic, when it nearly had to declare itself bankrupt due to collapse in passenger numbers.
“I think in 2020, in the depths of [the pandemic], if you had said we were going to turn this round in the space of three years, you probably would have thought we were mad,” he said.
An emergency timetable has been introduced on the Central line, with a peak hours frequency of 21 trains an hour in central London that should mean a train every three minutes.
But there are long gaps between services at the eastern end of the line, worsened by speed restrictions, including in the Hainault to Newbury Park area. This is said to have caused growing passenger anger.
Mr Lord said: “The challenges we are seeing on the Central line now serve as a sobering and powerful reminder of the consequences of underinvestment and uncertainty regarding long-term capital investment.”
John Dickie, chief executive of Business LDN, said: “The failure to provide Transport for London with a multi-year funding deal on a par with other city regions was a missed opportunity to spur growth both in the capital and across its UK-wide supply chain.”
