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Mayor Boris Johnson
today announced a massive expansion of London Transport by scrapping £3
billion worth of projects. Tramlink expansion is canned including the
£170m extension of the Croydon Tram network to the Crystal Palace Bus
Station.
Officially the Crystal Palace project "will not be
progressed" and "TfL will conduct a wider study involving the boroughs affected
as part of the new sub-regional plans to assess the transport needs of this
part of Outer London". So we might get a new bus route ... with
Routemasters?
Boris blames Ken saying "many of these projects
promised by the previous Mayor were never funded beyond their initial design
stages and had no money set aside to deliver them". Instead Boris promises to
deliver:
- The first of the large-scale Tube upgrades on the
Jubilee, Victoria and Northern lines, each providing between 20 and 30 per cent
more capacity into central London
- The first ever air-conditioned trains on the
Metropolitan, Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines
- Three-car trains on the DLR providing a 50 per cent
increase in capacity
- The transformation of the London Overground network -
which includes the East London line and North London line - with improved
reliability and a doubling of capacity
- Improvements to London's traffic flow, such as through
the optimisation of traffic lights and coordination of roadworks
- A new Routemaster fit for 21st Century London
- Trial of orbital express buses in Outer London
- A London cycle hire scheme and other major
initiatives, such as cycle highways, to revolutionise cycling in London
- A complete vision for the increased use of the
Thames
The East London Line is the only major one benefitting
us south of the river. A bit of a cheat when it was conceived, financed and
mostly built by his predecesor and is too near delivery to be scrapped.
Most of the scrapped schemes were designed to improve
transport south of the river as we have historically been less well served that
than North London. It would appear that money will be travelling north and to
the Olympics and we stay the poor relations. And it may be cynical to say that
we are even poorer by the increased bus fares necessary to help fill the hole
in the budget by Boris's scrapping of the £25 congestion charge for gas
guzzlers.
Not very green ... or if you disagree have your say
here
Images are from the TfL consultation document
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