Healthy Streets programme gets financial boost in latest TfL funding agreement

A new £3.6bn Government bailout has been agreed for Transport for London (TfL), part of which will be used to restore its Healthy Street programme.

A total of £80 million will be dedicated every year to active travel schemes, expanding walking and cycling infrastructure which will reduce congestion and pollution across the capital.

The Government says the agreement will fund a number of other projects including new Piccadilly line trains, as well as modernisations and upgrades across the District, Metropolitan, Hammersmith and City and Circle lines for millions of Londoners.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who is also chair of TfL, branded the deal "far from ideal" and warned of increased fares.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the deal, which lasts until March 2024, "more than delivers for Londoners".

Transport for London Commissioner Andy Byford said: “The support offered by Government left an unfunded gap in our budget, which we have been working hard to identify how we will fill. This work has made good progress and we are confident that we will achieve an outcome that allows us to balance our budget and maintain our minimum cash balance.

“We will need to progress with our plans to further modernise our organisation and make ourselves even more efficient, and we will still face a series of tough choices in the future, but London will move away from the managed decline of the transport network.”

The Government says that as part of the agreement it “ensured the Mayor agreed to continue work on the introduction of driverless trains on London Underground, something the transport secretary believes is key in London maintaining its position as Europe’s greatest transport network.”