Transport for London’s Commissioner Andy Byford believes that a long-term funding solution for the cash-strapped network could help fuel the UK’s recovery from the Coronavirus crisis.
Financial paper City AM watched a webinar in which Byford said that he was grateful to the government for £3.3 billion government grants agreed so far, but that the “hand-to-mouth, begging-bowl approach” had to end.
It reports that his priority is to negotiate a four to five year funding package with the government to set TfL on the path to recovery.
“I argue that it is a price worth paying”, City AM quotes him as saying. “It’s not just funding TfL, it’s not just funding London, it is fuelling the UK’s recovery.”
He added, “London needs to be at the centre of the economic recovery. If London gets back to full viability, and that will only come about through a viable transport system, it can continue to generate the funds that can then be put into levelling up.”
(Picture – Highways News/Sarah Hutton)
