New draft TfL Business Plan

[snoggle]

Following on from the fares announcement yesterday TfL have published an updated draft Business Plan. It covers the years up to 2020/21 which is as far as government have confirmed capital grant. Revenue grant (covering the cost of running services) is only confirmed to 2016.

The Business Plan is due to be discussed and agreed at the TfL Board Meeting next week.

Business Plan


Some quick highlights from the text that might interest people

- plan to buy up to 30 new trains for the West Anglia services that TfL will take over in 2015. EDIT - 4 car units.
- the order for new West Anglia trains likely to be linked to the GOBLIN EMU order. EDIT - confirmed as 4 car units. Electrification to be complete by March 2018.
- An indication that there will be a three track section on the West Anglia line either side of Tottenham Hale. T Hale station itself will
have 4 tracks which suggests an interesting rebuild to me!
- DLR to buy more trains (number unspecified) and expand stabling at Beckton.
- confirmation that TfL and Network Rail are in discussions about a possible extension of the Barking Gospel Oak line to Barking Riverside.
- Full dual tracking of the DLR line between Bow Church and Pudding Mill Lane to be complete by 2019.
- £100m to be invested in new bus priority corridor schemes.
- there are increased predicted ridership numbers for the bus network compared to the last set of numbers.
- Looks like the improvements at Finsbury Park tube station have been slowed down a bit with a completion date of 2019 for extra MIP lifts and a new ticket hall (linked to a development to the west of the station).
- Step free access to platform level to be provided at Elephant and Castle Northern Line. That's a new one on me.
- Confirmation of the desire to segregate Cycling Superhighways where possible. Also the cycling Crossrail via the Embankment plus other already announced schemes like Quietways and Mini Hollands in some of the boroughs.

[M1104]

Why only the northern line is to have step free access at the Elephant? If I remember correctly the Bakerloo Line access is not completely step free.

[snoggle]

Dec 4, 2013 13:31:30 GMT M1104 said:

Why only the northern line is to have step free access at the Elephant? If I remember correctly the Bakerloo Line access is not completely step free.

Honest answer is I do not know. It is the first reference I have seen to a step free E&C. It's a sensible thing to do given it's a lift station already. It's a long while since I've schleped through the low level tunnels at E&C but from memory it's a bit twisty and uppy downy.

I believe TfL are planning several more step free schemes but the identity of the stations has not yet been revealed. I suspect this is because they are looking for relatively cheap and quick to do schemes so Boris has some "legacy" come 2016. It may well be that E&C Bakerloo gets added on to the list of schemes if it can be done easily. What might be harder is converting the interchange link which is what people will expect to be done alongside with the main entry / exit routes.

[snoggle]

Dec 4, 2013 21:58:18 GMT @mredd said:

Wonder if Bethnal Green station will be renamed when they take it over...

I can't see it myself. It would cost a lot of money to do given it's a National Rail station and will still be served by Greater Anglia (albeit possibly a limited service). While putting it on the tube map will raise awareness of Bethnal Green NR I would be surprised if people confuse it with the Central Line station which is 5-6 mins walk away. The NR station is decidedly grim although better than it used to be. It will be interesting to see how TfL deal with it.

[snoggle]

I have been looking at some of the numbers in the Business Plan and comparing them to previous versions.

Some observations.

- TfL are making some heroic assumptions about the amount of revenue they will get on the Underground and Buses. By 2020 it is assumed that Tube and London Rail revenue will exceed £4bn. That's an enormous amount of money. Bus fare revenues will exceed £2bn by 2019.
- There are big differences in the scale of revenue expected for London Rail but this is because of the never ending growth on London Overground plus assumptions about money from the West Anglia and Crossrail lines as they're taken over / brought into service.
- There are some falls in the level of investment spending on LUL despite all the noise about station works and upgrades.
- There are big drops in LU's operating expenditure which must mean a lot fewer employees and big falls in maintenance costs. This is when set against the budgets from a couple of years ago.
- Come 2019/20 it is assumed that LU will cover its own costs including investment (as there is a drop off in big projects by then). Amazingly London Rail (Overground, DLR, Crossrail and Trams) should also be in the same position!

- On the buses contract costs will rise over the years but after 2016 there is an assumed level of mileage expansion so this is to be expected.
- The net bus subsidy rises a little bit and then stabilises at around £430m-£450m per annum.
- There is a bit of a splurge in bus capital investment up to 2016 and then it drops down to £20m-£30m a year.