SOUTH & WEST LONDON TRANSPORT SCHEMES FACE AXE

1.19.40pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 21st Jul 2004

Lynne today warned Londoners that 6 transport schemes could be facing the axe

Liberal Democrat London Transport Spokesman, Lynne Featherstone, will today warn that six of the Mayors' key transport schemes, mostly for south and west London, face the axe following the admission by Mr Livingstone that 'difficult decisions in finalising the TfL Business Plan' will have to made after the unveiling of the 10-year Transport White Paper.

Ms Featherstone will highlight that there was no mention in any announcement made by either the Mayor or the Department of Transport about:

· The proposed Croydon tram link extension

· The proposed Cross River tram scheme

· The proposed West London Tram scheme

· The proposed extension of the Congestion charge into Kensington and Chelsea

· Thameslink 2000

· The Orbirail proposals

Lynne Featherstone said:

"There has been a deafening silence from the Mayor about projects in South and West London and look like they are set to be stripped of any new transport developments for the foreseeable future.

"Mr Livingstone may well blame rail privatisation for the failure to get the extra cash that he wanted, but it also shows how little influence he has with his Labour Party colleagues in Government.

"Ken Livingstone has never officially met Gordon Brown since he became Mayor. Yesterdays announcement shows that Mr Livingstone has failed to put the case for London transport projects directly to the Chancellor to help ease London's overburdened and overstretched overground railways."

ENDS

Notes to editor:

· Alistair Darling's Ministerial statement today makes no mention of any of the Mayor's transport schemes for South or West London.

· The Mayor's press release following the Ministerial statement admits that "TfL had not secured the extra revenue resources that its successful track record merited and would face some difficult decisions in finalising its business plan."

· The Mayor lists the East London Line extensions, the DLR extensions and the East London and Greenwich Waterfront transits as capable of being funded under new borrowing arrangements agreed with Government. He makes no mention of transport schemes for South or West London.

The Montague Report outlines concerns about the Crossrail link as set out Paragraph 358:-

358. There are three main reasons why the Review believes the Benchmark Scheme could not be delivered exactly as proposed:

· the currently expected level of performance on the mainline railway with which Crossrail interfaces would not permit the envisaged 24 trains per hour peak service level to be reliably maintained

· plans for the Richmond-Kingston branch are still relatively underdeveloped; coincidentally, this is also the aspect of the current route design that has attracted most public opposition

· it is uncertain whether the construction market has sufficient capacity to undertake a project of this size and scope as a single initiative.

In his press statement GLA/2004/ 269 July 20 2004, Mr Livingstone said:-

"But today's announcement also shows just how much rail privatisation is still costing us all. The legacy of rail privatisation is swallowing up resources that should ideally have been available to invest in and build on our proven successes. That has denied TfL the resources it needs to proceed with its full plans for making more improvements to transport in London. As a result, we will face some difficult decisions in finalising the TfL Business Plan."

Orbirail

Orbirail is the name adopted for a proposed group of passenger services which will run over the East London line, North London lines, Gospel Oak to Barking line, the West London line and the Euston to Watford DC line.