30 March 2011
Transport for London is to seek £7.6bn of efficiency savings over the next four years, a businessplan presented to its board today has set out.
This covers a period during which three London Underground lines will be upgraded, the bulk of the Crossrail project completed, and the final link built in the London Overground network.
London Mayor Boris Johnson said there would be an 8% fall in TfL’s overall spending power as a result of government cuts to its grant, but it could still deliver these projects because ‘through negotiations, savings and efficiencies, we have done what many believed to be impossible’.
The mayor said all transport improvements related to the Olympics would be finished ‘well ahead’ of the start of the Games in July, including a 50% capacity increase on the Docklands Light Railway network.
Transport commissioner Peter Hendy will lead the review of ways to cut back-office and corporate costs. He said savings would arise from the end of the ‘scandalously costly, disruptive and wasteful Tube public-private partnership’.
Some £400m in savings is expected from cutting 800 ticket office staff and £375m from better use of IT. Bus subsidies are also set to save £460m as this cost has effectively been passed to fare-payers.
TfL said it had also saved £290m from renegotiating major contracts such as the congestion charge’s operation and highway maintenance, and £175m from moving staff to cheaper locations.
