Bonfire night for London Transport – and the Mayor’s fanning the flames

By Len Duval

The Mayor’s bonfire of essential transport projects continued apace this week as he announced that Greenwich’s ‘Waterfront Transit’ (GWT) scheme will be axed. Southeast London has again been let down by a Mayor who, worryingly, has casually abandoned yet another scheme that would have been of immense benefit to Londoners and with it £40 million of investment.

While there were some issues surrounding the routing of the scheme through the Royal Arsenal, which I had been liaising with TfL and the residents’ association on, it was supported by local residents and endorsed by the London Development Agency, Friends of the Earth, Thames Gateway Partnership and the London Borough of Bexley.

The Mayor claims that the decision to scrap the project was taken “following consultation with local residents”. But since these consultations took place in 2005 and 2007 and highlighted no major concerns, it is risible that they are now being used to justify the Mayor’s decision.

He also justifies cancelling the scheme because of the his earlier decision to jettison the Thames Gateway Bridge (and with it £350m of PFI credits). This begs the question: why was the scheme not cancelled at the same time as the Bridge in TfL’s recent 10 year Business Plan? Not only did TfL choose not to do this but, in the very same document, they admit that the GWT offered “improved transport links to support major development proposals in south and east London” and would “improve connections for the 2012 Games events in the Greenwich area”. Moreover, there is no mention whatsoever of the scheme’s viability being linked to the existence of the Bridge.

When you combine the lost PFI credits from the scrapped Thames Gateway Bridge and the funds that would have been invested in the Transit scheme, southeast London, and Greenwich in particular, has lost out on almost £400million of funding within a year of Boris Johnson’s election. This would be easier to stomach if his decisions stood up to minimal scrutiny, but the reality is, today’s announcement reveals Boris Johnson’s approach to transport policy: arbitrary, inequitable and lacking in strategic vision.

Despite the challenging economic climate, the Mayor needs to understand that capital investment in London’s transport network is part of the solution to the city’s economic revival and long-term competitiveness, not a barrier to it. Based on the number of projects he has scrapped, it could be a long time before the penny drops.