TfL's submission to the Comprehensive Spending Review

Boris likes buses. They carry more passengers than the tube (176.8m bus against 117.5m tube pre covid). The buses have to be renewed more often so for politicians the fix is seen quicker. So I would expect to see an electric bus fleet sooner than all the other upgrades.

Up until 1970 the buses were the senior service. Splitting country buses and green line saw the decline.

I don't see why this is the "last chance saloon", if responsibility for transport in London is taken away from TfL then it becomes the responsibility of the DfT, the Secretary of State for Transport and ultimately the Prime Minister.

Much easier for the government to hand over the money and let the Mayor take the blame when things go wrong!

London must be one of the last places where buses are still a major force in everyday transport.
Everywhere else, they are not just of minor importance, but scarcely even credible!

Riverside areas have been housing development area for 30 years. No one wants to live there. Went to A West Ham- Rainham pre season friendly 30 years ago and the players and spectators were bitten alive by flies and midges. West Ham never went again.

Now if talk was of developing land round eastern central line stations, Fairlop, Barkingside, Hainault. the nimby's would be up in arms All part of a new forest stretching down into Dagenham. A horse racing track was thrown out years ago.

The DLR into the Royal Docks never brought the prosperity that was expected.

I’ve shifted the above here from the CV19 thread seeing as it all went off on a bit of a tangent. Mods, if you want to move it again to somewhere else more appropriate please feel free. 

Erm..... Not sure how you define "everywhere else" but I can think of several northern towns who are entirely reliant on a bus network. I can also think of several northern cities where busses and trains work in tandem to move the masses.

If done well it could be a positive thing. TFL has always been a political organisation rather than a transport one, and in my view hasn’t been all the better for it. How about a return to LT with just Underground, buses, and perhaps Overground / Crossrail?

Being cynical I don’t think that’s what we’d get unfortunately. Instead we’re probably going to see more games played, at least until the mayoral election is out the way.

I’m sure it’s the first time a resignalling scheme (I presume that’s what they’re looking at for the Picc) has been tied to a number of homes. It’s farcical.

A focus on delivery wouldn’t go amiss at all.

Unfortunately I doubt that’s what we’ll see though. Just replacing one set of short-term political cycle objectives with another. As we see with how long the SSR resignalling has dragged on such projects tend to outlive political cycles just a bit!

The difference in political party between mayor and government *could* work to LU’s advantage, even if only by accident rather than design.

I remember an old-school service control manager (who is still around I think, in some form) once threw a working timetable on his desk and said pointedly “our role is to deliver this, not this”, pointing to some political-type paperwork that had arrived in his office. Some lines could do well to have a greater prevalence of such attitudes, something like the Central is a string of cancellations every day and has been like it for years now.

I can think of several Northern towns where buses are the exclusive domain of pensioners, drunks and the professionally unemployed.
London is certainly exceptional,as far as transport is concerned. Is there anywhere else where people in the 40% tax bracket ride on buses?

I'd be interested to know TfL's reasoning for prioritising DLR to Thamesmead over Bakerloo line to Hayes. Seems Bakerloo line is more "shovel ready" than the DLR extension.

I'm struggling to find the details of what the planned benefits are for the upgrades of North Action and Canning Town are. Does anyone know please?

The estimated cost of the DLR extension is "Around £800m" with delivery scheduled for "2026-2030"

The Bakerloo extension would cost an estimated £2-3bn but is dependent on new trains as there isn't enough 1972 stock to run an extended service.  Also if the extension is built I somehow doubt they'll be installing coloured lights and tripcocks so the rest of the Bakerloo would need a signal upgrade.



From page 32 of the proposal

dosen't have to be, the MET is currently running with transition points at Finchley Rd. and Euston Square, and it sounds as if the point at Moor Park may end up permanent.

A higher capacity Jubilee line fleet to follow upon the new Picc trains must mean new platform edge door layout, and overnight change from old to new trains at the extension tunnel stations. I believe the change from 6-car to 7-car trains was done over the Christmas/New Year break.