One Track Mind.

The Headline in the Sunday Times Business section 10th May 2020 reads ‘ TFL begs Whitehall for £2 billion bailout ‘ . TFL the acronym for Transport for London is the organisation under the Governance of the Board and London Mayor that runs London’s Public Transport Systems of Underground, Buses, Taxis, Light Railway, Overground rail, London river services and soon to open Crossrail. It is that which moves workers, tourists, families and people, circa 4 billion journeys per annum in total through the body of that which is the 1000 year capital city of Great Britain.

Exacerbated by the pandemic Covid19 it is losing £21 million per day as traffic is down 95%. For that exceptional reason the Government should and are obliged to help. However the reality is that TFL is an ongoing disaster and it is not a band aid that is now needed but major surgery. With an income of approximately £6.8 billion and a Cost of Operations of circa £7.5 billion it was losing pre virus £700 million per annum. At the same time TFL has a debt of £10.4 billion and worse still a Staff Pension Fund Deficit of just under £5 billion. The system is crying out for Capital spends on upgrade lines and for completion of extensions and cost overrun, like Crossrail now two years late and suffering the double whammy of lost income and being over budget.

The solution to the woes of the system is there to be taken but the ongoing incompetence of grabbing the matter by the scruff of the neck and dealing with it continues with every Government and every Parliament. The reality is that the assets are being under utilised, delays in realising it property portfolio potential, failure to recognise its digital capabilities and failure to inject the much needed capital to rid it of debt and inject new funds to sweep the cobweb cash restraints away. The fault clearly lies with Management from Whitehall to St James and Baker Street. Worse is that the fourth industrial revolution with AI transportation systems and new technological transport solutions we could find ourselves riding the dinosaur.

Covid19 will prove that Corporations can work from home and they will not need great swathes of square footage office space. London could diversify and create mixed use communities and new gathering hubs within the City centre eradicating the long daily commutes that take at great cost chunks out of people’s incomes, monies that a far better to be invested into the real economy and not wasted by the continual stem of losses at TFL and other transport franchises.

It is time to solve the problem. You can tickle the issue with a bailout and the Government should short term, you can continue the scratch of the annual £700m plus loss, for how long ? or you can get the patient into surgery to operate and perform the miraculous turnaround that is so needed. London can so easily lose its star city it’s great attractiveness if we don’t have a system that works. It is neither a Public or Private initiative it has to be both and it has to meet the users of the system at where life is at and ahead of where we are going.
Why can’t we win again ? and not limit ourselves with a one track mindset of defeat.