The mayor of London Sadiq Khan on Tuesday admitted an entire Tube line may have to close as a result of Transport for London’s financial crisis.
The Mayor said axing one of the Underground’s 11 lines was a “possibility” unless TfL secured long-term investment from the Government.
The Standard revealed last week that the closure of a full line was a radical option being considered by TfL finance chiefs.
Mr Khan told BBC 5 Live: “One of the things we are looking into is the possibility of closing a Tube line. Why? Because closing a Tube line will make the savings, the cuts, that we need to introduce if we are going to balance our books.”
TfL’s current Government covid bailout expires on December 11. It is seeking £500m to keep services running until next April, plus about £1.2bn for 2022/23.
But the absence of any guarantee of capital or investment funding to maintain and upgrade the Underground and the road and bus network has prompted TfL to seek immediate and cuts on an unprecedented scale.
The Jubilee line is reportedly most at risk from cuts or closure but the Bakerloo, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines could also be options due to lower passenger numbers and overlapping rail or Tube services.
Many West Ham supporters rely on the Jubilee to get to Stratford and the London Stadium on match days.
To put things into perspective, the covid “Track and Trace” folly cost us £37 Billion and has now been scrapped…
Why should the government have difficulty in funding the tube network, for the benefit of All Londoners?
Track and trace didn’t cost 38 billion. 38 billion was allocated towards the t&t programme as a whole and the vast majority of that went to the testing aspects of that. The information is all publically available.
The tfl and London as a whole has been run abysmally by both the govt and the mayor’s office. Sadiq simply Khant shut the jubilee line down as there is absolutely no way Canary wharf would tolerate that. It’s an empty threat from an empty person.
The Track and Trace program is obviously wasted money, but what isn’t in doubt is that the T&T program dwarfs what is required to run the whole tube network at a bare minimum. For a threat of this magnitude to be made, has to speak volumes of the desperate situation the network finds itself in.
There isn’t a transport system in the world, run in the way that this government is forcing our capital’s system to be run, which speaks volumes.
I don’t feel that I need to apologise, but I will say it all the same, I am NOT a fan of Sadiq Khan as he was the lesser of two evils when he was elected on both occasions. But bumbling Bojo who is meant to be running this country is sinking it instead.