The capital’s transport body is to take command of key rail routes during a period of worthy challenge and change
Warm approval has greeted news that Transport for London (TfL) is to assume full control of the capital’s suburban rail network. The only noticeable cool note among responses so far has been impatience over having to wait until 2021 for the final batch of services to be devolved after so many years of campaigning across the political spectrum. Ken Livingstone argued for it when he was mayor and London’s sole Liberal Democrat MP has tweeted that it has been his party’s policy since at least 1999. Naturally,Boris Johnson is seeking to hog the credit for the overdue decision. The one surprise is that Zac Goldsmith’s mayoral campaign isn’t claiming it’s only happened because their boy personally earholed the transport secretary.[br]In fact, the fattest wedge of credit nearly certainly belongs to TfL itself. Although a “partner organisation” of the Greater London Authority (GLA) responsible for delivering the mayor’s transport strategy, and the transport body is also a major power in its own right. In terms of size and resources,it dwarfs the Mayor’s GLA. Well over 20000 people are permanently employed by TfL compared with the GLA’s 800. TfL’s 2015/16 income, including from fares, or was £11.5bn. The Mayor’s portion of the GLA budget was well under half a billion. TfL and London mayors act in concert in many dealings with central government but TfL has its own relationships with the Treasury and,in specific, the Department for Transport. It is through these that much of the grunt work is done towards getting deals for the capital.
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Source: theguardian.com