London Underground and TfL

Suburban rail devolution a key tenet in Khan’s 25-year transport strategy

Alongside Crossrail 2, the devolution of suburban rail services to TfL and the creation of a suburban metro in the capital have both been featured as a key tenet in the mayor of London’s draft Transport Strategy, published today.

The strategy, now under consultation until 2 October, placed great emphasis on Sadiq Khan’s vision of greater local rail control in the capital by transferring power from the DfT to TfL over specifications for train services within the South Eastern, South Western, South Central and Great Northern franchises “as soon as practically possible”.

Plans for devolution, which had been developed quite extensively in 2016, were soon shelved by transport secretary Chris Grayling, who was then accused of trying to keep the capital’s suburban rail services away from the hands of the Labour Party.

The London mayor voiced consistent frustration over Grayling’s decision, arguing that devolution was “the only proven way of improving services for passengers” and that “anything short of that simply won’t make the improvements desperately needed”. His claims were supported by a YouGov poll for the Greater London Authority, which found that 58% of Londoners supported the decentralisation of the network.

Concerned MPs and peers also sided with Khan, writing to prime minister Theresa May to call for an “urgent reassessment of TfL’s business case” – an idea which the transport secretary was quick to rule out.

After a few months of radio silence on the issue, the mayor has now ensured the idea took a centre-stage position in his ambitious transport strategy, alongside his unyielding support for the development of Crossrail 2.

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Using London Overground as an example of what TfL can achieve when given the right powers, Khan argued that “even greater benefits” could be achieved if they were accompanied by devolution of franchise specifications.

“There is a strong business case for devolution of these services as it would make the creation of a London suburban metro much simpler and faster, and would provide greater benefits for Londoners and visitors alike,” he wrote.

Devolution would also enable TfL to place better incentives for the franchisee to deliver the same reliability standards as London Overground, as well as specify improved service frequencies at off-peak times, make stations more welcoming and staffed from first to last trains, develop more integrated travel advice, and move towards more affordable fares over time.

“With devolution, TfL’s role would be restricted to selected local passenger services within the London area or slightly beyond where the geography of the railway network requires it,” Khan explained.

“Passengers using longer-distance services, which would remain the responsibility of the DfT, would be unaffected in terms of fares, train stopping patterns or relative priority of services. TfL would have no ability to alter their timetables, although TfL estimates there would be beneficial knock-on reliability improvements as a result of devolving local stopping services to TfL.”

The mayor also outlined the benefits of improving rail services to town centres by creating new ‘rail hubs’. Towns would be served by ‘mini-radial’ networks developed by improving train services on existing lines, opening some new lines and creating new interchange hubs.

“Linked together, these ‘mini-radial’ networks could provide for ‘orbital’ trips to be made by rail in inner and outer London,” the strategy document read. “Improved orbital rail services, integrated with bus services and improvements for cycling and walking, would enable significant benefits to be achieved across most of inner London and much of outer London from what is largely the existing rail infrastructure.”

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Mentions were also made to TfL’s commitment to work with the DfT to boost capacity on the London Overground network by 45% by 2030, upgrade rail freight routes outside London to free up rail paths through the capital for extra passenger services, upgrade the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) by introducing a higher-capacity fleet, and upgrade the tram system to grow its capacity by 85% to and from Croydon by 2030.

Khan also pledged to work alongside Network Rail and the boroughs to deliver a programme of station capacity improvements to complement line capacity enhancements – although this is not necessarily new information, with works already underway at key Tube stations.

Crossrail 2

With regards to Crossrail 2, which the mayor has repeatedly labelled as essential to the future of the region, TfL has asked the government to allow greater use of business rate retention and approve extra powers – such as vehicle excise duty in London – to create a fairer way of funding the scheme.

As expected, it has also requested that Whitehall give the scheme the green light immediately in order to deliver it by 2033 – before the arrival of HS2 phase 2b at Euston.

“It has been an incredibly difficult few weeks for London, but we must carry on as a city and that means pushing forward our work to keep Londoners moving around our city,” said Khan.

“London is the greatest city in the world and as it continues to grow it is vital that we take a bold approach to ensure our transport network works for all. We simply cannot afford to take the same old approach to travel as our growing population puts increasing pressure on our network.

“That’s why today I’m setting out a new long-term vision for our capital – one that puts walking, cycling and zero-emission public transport right at the heart of our day-to-day lives. So while we are delivering affordable, reliable and accessible transport through the improved services and new infrastructure that we need, we’re also changing the whole way we look at transport as a whole.”

The strategy naturally relied on the support of London transport commissioner Mike Brown, who argued the document focuses clearly on how, over the next 25 years, the capital will invest in modernising and improving services “so that people have excellent transport connections no matter where they are in the city”.

(Top image c. Yui Mok/PA Wire)