Boris Johnson has announced that major projects will be dropped to divert funds to Crossrail
Boris Johnson has scrapped seven major transport schemes in London in a bid to save £2.4bn for Transport for London over the next 10 years and make way for Crossrail.
The £500m Thames Gateway Bridge, the £750m Docklands Light Railway extension to Dagenham Docks and a £1.3bn cross-river tram plan are among the projects being dropped.
Other schemes to be cut are the £170m Croydon Tramlink Extension, the £500m Oxford Street Tram, the £200m East London Transit, the £170m Greenwich Waterfront Transit and £100m worth of public space proposals.
The news came as the mayor launched TfL's business plan to 2018. He said £39bn would be spent on projects such as Crossrail and increasing tube capacity by 28% by 2018 as part of the “biggest investment in London transport for a generation”.
Johnson explained his decision to drop certain schemes as a bid to end the “cruel deception” of the taxpayer that the funds were there to see them through. More than £60m had already been wasted on developing projects that “simply do not have the funding from government,” he said.
“I want to make it clear that I am not stopping the schemes. I'm stopping the deception,” he said.
“I'm levelling with the London public and saying the taxpayer should not be asked to continue to pay for these programmes and we should concentrate on plans that can be achieved.”
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