Transport for London (TfL) has rather a long to do list, as do we all nowadays. As the new year dawns, officials will be eager to tick tasks off.
These involve the most important parts of TfL’s network, including the London Underground, buses and the DLR. Sadiq Khan says that more money is needed to deliver the most ambitious projects.
The Department for Transport (DfT) says it is working with the Mayor of London on this. One of TfL’s primary sources of funding is grants from the Government and the Greater London Authority (GLA) to fund operating costs and investments. Here are the projects I think TfL should prioritise.
Finalise and start rolling out Superloop 2 routes
The Superloop 2 was announced during the mayoral election campaign in the spring
Sadiq Khan told MyLondon in July that he does not expect the first Superloop 2 routes to be rolled out until 2025. The procurement, consultation with the public and preparing roads and bus stops will mean the new express services – which stop fewer times than normal buses – will not be ready in 2024.
The Mayor told the London Assembly on October 15: “I have asked Transport for London (TfL) to investigate a number of additional Superloop routes. That work is underway, and a number of possible routings have been identified.
“Any new routes will be subject to public consultation. TfL will announce public consultation when a detailed proposal or proposals have been sufficiently developed.”
The routes put forward when Mr Khan pledged an expansion of the Superloop network were:
- Harrow to Barnet via Edgware
- South Havering to Leytonstone via Romford
- Hounslow to Hammersmith
- Streatham to Eltham via Catford
- Ealing to Kingston via Richmond
These need to be put through public consultation, and may be subject to change. Officials say the initial Superloop routes have boosted ridership, and residents will be keen to try out new ones. But, inevitably, locations perhaps in need of the services will miss out. Bexley Village, for example, has voiced its frustration.
Start roll out of new DLR trains
Earlier this year, officials had to slow down DLR trains after a fault was discovered. This meant the rollout of the network’s new trains – due to begin by the end of the year – was delayed.
TfL says work is underway to ‘optimise’ the speed restrictions, which will ‘hopefully minimise the impact to customers on the DLR network’. As a result of the legacy signalling issue, further detailed analysis is also required for the new trains, alongside existing software modifications, officials say.
The new five-carriage DLR trains can hold 793 passengers, reach 50mph and are 86.7metres long
(Image: TfL)
They add that TfL does have a solution for the new trains to enter passenger service, but the initial programme is currently being ‘stress-tested and optimised’. A series of modifications to the train and signalling have been, or are in the process, of being implemented to address this issue.
Tube noise, dust and extension
TfL says it is addressing noise on the Tube network. It’s got so bad, that Tube drivers have said they will intentionally slow down their trains to mitigate against it.
Engineers have grinded rails, and new technology – Delkor fastenings – are now fitted as standard as part of TfL’s ongoing Deep Tube track renewal programme. Experts have has carried out renewal works, which include the installation of the fastenings, at a number of sites.
The Tube is rather loud
(Image: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)
Speed trials have also been tried out to see if schedules can be kept, while sounds is also reduced. These measures keep being deployed as noisy areas are raised with bosses in a massive city-wide game of Whack-a-Mole. Using the Tube is sometimes incredibly unpleasant because of the racket; it needs to be sorted out.
As well as noise, dust also poses a potential problem. TfL has said that it is working with experts on more research into potential health effects of dust on the Underground network.
In March, Imperial College London research, commissioned by TfL, found that fleet staff, customer service workers and drivers all had higher rates of sickness absence due to any cause compared with ‘non-exposed’ office workers. Researchers found that drivers on five out of eight lines showed elevated rates of all-cause sickness absence, with the Piccadilly line having the highest concentration of particulate matter (PM).
But, it was noted that there was ‘no clear exposure-response relationship’, where researchers would expect to see increasing exposure [with PM] associated with an increased sickness absence’.
(Image: TfL)
It is also high time that the future of the Bakerloo line extension to Lewisham was decided. TfL says more cash from the Government is needed, and a new fleet of trains for the Tube’s brown line will need to be built first. This will also require money.
Speaking of railway networks, there is a very large elephant casting it’s shadow over London. After the success of the Elizabeth line – albeit with some delays and disruption – it would be good to see some progress with Crossrail 2.
This would stretch from Surrey to Hertfordshire and pass through London. The project would create more capacity and public transport links for residents and tourists. But this too needs money from the Government, officials say, and is currently paused.
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Clear up ULEZ debt
Another item of TfL’s list of things to do to gather ULEZ debt. Latest figures show that more than £370 million is owed in unpaid fines.
This would boost TfL’s coffers. Officials say they are stepping up the collection, and more than £25 million has been recouped in the past year.
More than 1,400 vehicles were seized by bailiffs in 12 months for non-payment of ULEZ fees. Some 761 were auctioned, recovering £710,000 of debts accrued by drivers refusing to pay the ULEZ charge.
TfL says income generated by the ULEZ scheme is invested into public transport, such as improving bus routes in Outer London.
Bus safety concerns and updating routes
I spoke to bus drivers earlier this year, who told me they were fatigued, work in cabs that are too hot and too cold, drive ‘faulty vehicles’ and do not feel comfortable reporting their concerns to managers. TfL and London’s bus operators say they ‘take driver welfare seriously’ and are ‘working together on a range of measures to improve health and wellbeing and to combat fatigue’.
Drivers have spoken to MyLondon about safety concerns
(Image: Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images)
Sadiq Khan has also said: “As far as TfL can ascertain, London is the first city to use fatigue detection technology for buses, not just to alert drivers to a fatigue event, but to use the data to understand fatigue risk by geography, time, route and rostering.”
But crashes, including fatal ones, keep happening. This officials will need to get to the bottom of. In addition, MyLondon has recently reported on multiple routes that are said to be busy and late.
This is thought to be down to new housing developments. TfL will need to keep evaluating the capacity of routes in areas with increasing populations.
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