0840 Hrs GMT
London
Monday
08 March 2010
Editor © Muhammad Haque
Whatever happened to Boris Johnson’s utterance of recognition of the importance of London tube as compared to the OTT hyped Crossrail?
On the day after the dubious ‘Crossrail Bill’ was given the rubber stamp in the UK palace of Ghostsminster, the Guardian carried a piece by-lined to their Crossrail –peddler Dan Milmo, to the effect that ‘tube upgrade would not be sidelined by Crossrail’.
That was 20 months ago.
And 20 months on, there is no sign that Boris Johnson even remembers what he was reported as saying. Neither, come to that, does it appear does Andrew Adonis.
[To be continued]
TEXTS below from the Guardian web site accessed in the morning of 8 March 2010
“4.15pm
Tube upgrade will not be sidelined by Crossrail, says Johnson
Tweet this
Dan Milmo
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 23 July 2008 16.20 BST
Article history
London mayor Boris Johnson warned today that the £16bn Crossrail line must not take priority over a £30bn upgrade of the capital's tube network, amid concerns over the amount of public funding required to cover both transport projects.
Johnson said he was "determined" that the overhaul of the underground system will not be shelved in order to fund Crossrail, which received royal assent from the Queen last night and will begin construction next year for a 2017 opening.
"I am determined that the government will honour its obligation to Londoners," said Johnson.
The mayor added that the tube project was "co-equal" with Crossrail, which will bore train tunnels under central London and carry 200 million passengers per year on a route that stretches from Maidenhead in the west to Shenfield in Essex.
"It would be quite wrong to rob Peter in order to pay Paul. The upgrade of the tube is the most vital thing we can do for Londoners. It is co-equal with Crossrail," he said.
Asked if he would choose the upgrade over the Crossrail project, he said: "I refuse to go into either/or conversations because that is completely fruitless."
Speaking at an event to mark the formal royal assent for the Crossrail bill this morning, Johnson said Londoners had been "promised" the upgrades by the government and expect the tube to improve over the next decade.
However, funding of the upgrades is in doubt following the collapse of Metronet, one of the companies charged with carrying out the work under the world's biggest public private partnership.
Metronet ran up a projected overspend of at least £2bn and the remaining PPP contractor, Tube Lines, is negotiating the funding settlement for its next round of work between 2010 and 2017.
According to senior sources, Tube Lines could be facing a funding gap of a similar scale to Metronet's. The PPP contract referee, Chris Bolt, is due to publish his report on Tube Lines' financial needs for 2010 to 2017 next month. The mayor's transport body, Transport for London, requested the assessment after becoming concerned that both sides are too far apart on how much funding Tube Lines needs.
The funding for the tube upgrades and TfL's contribution to building Crossrail must come from a £39bn funding settlement from the Department for Transport, which covers all of TfL's budgetary requirements up to 2017. TfL and the Greater London Authority have pledged £7.7bn to Crossrail, but one senior transport source told the Guardian in May that the settlement, negotiated by Johnson's predecessor Ken Livingstone, underestimated the tube costs.
It is understood that around £10bn is needed to cover the PPP work due to be carried out between 2010 and 2017, which includes new signalling systems on the Northern, Piccadilly and Victoria lines. The £39bn must also cover the costs of TfL's bus network, which requires an annual subsidy of £500m.
Peter Hendy, London's transport commissioner, said today that TfL expected the work to be carried out, even if the funding situation remains undecided.
"It has always been the case that the money associated with the PPP was unclear after 2010. What the mayor is relying on strongly is that the government's commitment is to all the tube upgrades.
"Much of the capital equipment is shot and the trains are old. Most of the major work on these upgrades is in the period to 2017 and Boris Johnson expects it to funded and carried out," he said.
Hendy admitted to London Assembly members earlier this year that TfL did not know whether the £39bn would cover the next phase of the tube upgrade. TfL expects to complete a financial assessment of its tube plans, including those of TfL-owned Metronet, by the autumn.
larger | smaller
UK news
Transport · London
Politics
Boris Johnson
Printable version Send to a friend Share Clip Contact us Article history
Ads by Google
Free Life Coach Training
2 Day Life Coach Training Course *Was £500*: Now *Free* - Book Today
www.The-Coaching-Academy.com
Property Workshops
MIPIM 2010: expert-led sessions providing leading advice and trends
www.mipim.com
Getting around in London?
Find out if there are delays with The Tfl Extension for Google Chrome
Chrome.Google.Com/Extensions
Latest from UK news
Most viewed
Latest
Most commented
Last 24 hours
1.Jon Venables back in prison 'due to child porn offences'
2.James Bulger killer Jon Venables confessed real identity to strangers as mental state crumbled
3.Nick Griffin declines BBC appearance
4.Three dead after fall from Glasgow flats
5.Government to place £100m order to replace maligned Snatch Land Rovers
More top stories
Bestsellers from the Guardian shop
The World in Information Guardian Wallcharts
From: £18.00
Visit the Guardian reader offers shop
Green & ethical shopping at Guardian ecostore
Section classified
Free Sky+ HD box
plus free standard installation and £25 M&S voucher when you join!
Latest news on guardian.co.uk
Last updated less than one minute ago
News
Mandelson: Ashcroft row exposes Cameron weakness
Sport
Wenger won't risk Fábregas
UK news
Government attempts to have torture case heard in secret
Free P&P at the Guardian bookshop
Cello Suites
£14.99 with free UK delivery
Prosperity without Growth
£12.99 with free UK delivery
Browse the bestseller lists
Sponsored features
Shoot to win £2,000
Cash prizes up for grabs in our new photography competition
Enjoy all England has to offer
Win a luxury break in Newcastle Gateshead
UK
USA
Browse all jobs
Business Development And Sponsorship Executive
Prospect Us Recruitment.
London.
c£40K.
Administrator
Imperial College.
South Kensington, London.
£26,720 - £30,520 p.a..
Probation Programme Manager
Coi Hm Prison Service.
Leading The Overall Delivery Of Existing Estate Ac….
£41,715 - £60,433 + £4,000 Local Pay Allowance.
Twitter, to End POVERTY
follow me on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment