Mayor Sadiq Khan should try living outside the South East.
London is the only part of the UK that pays more in taxes than they receive in public spending, so London pays for the rest of the country (except the East of England, which has equal spending/taxation).
So, stop complaining about London and support it, or you’re all in trouble.
> To see how we got into the mess, you need to understand how what looked like TfL’s biggest strength turned out to be its greatest weakness. In 2015, the capital’s then mayor, an obscure chap by the name of Boris Johnson, agreed a new financial settlement for London’s transport system. The roughly £700 million a year it got from the Treasury to keep the Tube and buses running would be phased out. In its place, a fair whack of business rate revenue would be devolved to the capital. Mostly, though, TfL would be funded by its users.
>
> For the first couple of years after the 2018 reforms this worked beautifully, and TfL largely paid its own way without taking money from the governmental equivalent of its parents. Instead, its money came through advertising, congestion charging, and, most of all, fares.
>
> The latter has recently provided around 72 per cent of TfL’s money, compared with only 38 per cent in New York or Paris and as little as 21 per cent in Singapore. This is, in its way, pretty impressive — and best of all it protected London from the whims of the Treasury.
Traditionally London’s bus network is subsided from the profit TFL makes from the more expensive train network.
The other thing is London doesn’t have much power to raise funds elsewhere. London’s roads have to be maintained by TFL but the car tax goes to the central government and isn’t spent in London. Kahn wants to claim that money back, but Westminster says No.
They should close Westminster and St James Park tube stations and any bus routes that serve Whitehall. That would get funding fixed very quickly
[deleted]
Everyone in this thread is missing the point. The Tories have turned transport into a business. It’s not. On the continent and in most of APAC, public transport is either public or heavily subsidised so that it is affordable and works. It isn’t designed to make money or break even.
The Tories have opted for a model in line with America (basically nothing cheap and useful, or very expensive and everyone drives) or India (cram as much fee payers into the smallest space)
Trains and buses are integral for moving people are in cost efficient manners for workers and businesses alike. It’s a public service. It shouldn’t be free, but it’s not for profit either.
As some one who is born and bred in London and seen the changes of TFL, it is very sad that politicians from labour in London and Tories (nationally) are partisan about this one issue and yes i agree London pays out a lout in taxes and is being ridiculed because it needs support for its transport system.
​
Honestly, they need to put politics a side and do what’s right for Londoners (be fair) and TFL shouldn’t be inflating the prices of travel too when working class Londoners can’t afford to pay more into the system. TFL and the government really didn’t see this coming at all economically.
7 comments
Mayor Sadiq Khan should try living outside the South East.
London is the only part of the UK that pays more in taxes than they receive in public spending, so London pays for the rest of the country (except the East of England, which has equal spending/taxation).
So, stop complaining about London and support it, or you’re all in trouble.
One of the misconceptions about TFL is that it’s funded from the wider U.K tax payer. This largely stopped a while ago and TFL is one of the least subsidised mass-transit systems. https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/tfl-funding-managed-decline-sadiq-khan-b967241.html
> To see how we got into the mess, you need to understand how what looked like TfL’s biggest strength turned out to be its greatest weakness. In 2015, the capital’s then mayor, an obscure chap by the name of Boris Johnson, agreed a new financial settlement for London’s transport system. The roughly £700 million a year it got from the Treasury to keep the Tube and buses running would be phased out. In its place, a fair whack of business rate revenue would be devolved to the capital. Mostly, though, TfL would be funded by its users.
>
> For the first couple of years after the 2018 reforms this worked beautifully, and TfL largely paid its own way without taking money from the governmental equivalent of its parents. Instead, its money came through advertising, congestion charging, and, most of all, fares.
>
> The latter has recently provided around 72 per cent of TfL’s money, compared with only 38 per cent in New York or Paris and as little as 21 per cent in Singapore. This is, in its way, pretty impressive — and best of all it protected London from the whims of the Treasury.
Traditionally London’s bus network is subsided from the profit TFL makes from the more expensive train network.
COVID fucked this all across the country and the Government has given proper bailouts to [train networks elsewhere](https://bylinetimes.com/2021/05/18/7-billion-covid-bailout-for-private-train-firms-includes-70-million-management-fees/). Why won’t they do so for TFL? Because London voted for a Labour Mayor and they want to blame him and to claim that it’s a failure of a publically owned company.
The other thing is London doesn’t have much power to raise funds elsewhere. London’s roads have to be maintained by TFL but the car tax goes to the central government and isn’t spent in London. Kahn wants to claim that money back, but Westminster says No.
They should close Westminster and St James Park tube stations and any bus routes that serve Whitehall. That would get funding fixed very quickly
[deleted]
Everyone in this thread is missing the point. The Tories have turned transport into a business. It’s not. On the continent and in most of APAC, public transport is either public or heavily subsidised so that it is affordable and works. It isn’t designed to make money or break even.
The Tories have opted for a model in line with America (basically nothing cheap and useful, or very expensive and everyone drives) or India (cram as much fee payers into the smallest space)
Trains and buses are integral for moving people are in cost efficient manners for workers and businesses alike. It’s a public service. It shouldn’t be free, but it’s not for profit either.
As some one who is born and bred in London and seen the changes of TFL, it is very sad that politicians from labour in London and Tories (nationally) are partisan about this one issue and yes i agree London pays out a lout in taxes and is being ridiculed because it needs support for its transport system.
​
Honestly, they need to put politics a side and do what’s right for Londoners (be fair) and TFL shouldn’t be inflating the prices of travel too when working class Londoners can’t afford to pay more into the system. TFL and the government really didn’t see this coming at all economically.