Today the mayor is in Northern Ireland showing off the new chassis production line for the 'New Bus for London', a modern design based on the old Routemaster which has prototypes running on two routes.

He's using it to show that investment in London's transport supports jobs across the UK.

Why?

Discussions are now going on between the Treasury and Transport for London (TfL) about next year's spending settlement. TfL wants sustained investment over five years of £1.8bn a year.

This is a rather odd cycle.

Most of the time, parts of TfL boast about punctuality times improving along with customer satisfaction.

Then, as soon as the funding review rears its head, it'll happily show you some of the most outdated and crumbling infrastructure you are ever likely to see, to prove it needs more money.

The argument being made now is about the supply chain and how investment in London's transport maintains jobs.

This is a breakdown of the five biggest procurements that TfL has given me:

It also says: "Investment in London's transport network supports 40,000 jobs in the UK supply chain, with a further 19,000 supported in the supply chain within London. "

Of course not every procurement from TfL is from the UK - some of the mayor's flagship projects aren't.

The bike hire scheme comes from Canada and TfL says that cost £100m to set up.

The cable car (£45m) over the Thames comes from Austria.

The jobs argument is being made along with the infrastructure argument - that building in London creates construction jobs here.

Without £1.8bn a year, TfL says it will have to cut or mothball the Piccadilly line upgrades, new Jubilee line trains and road schemes.

That will have a direct impact on hundreds of thousands of Londoners.

City Hall also wants to make it clear transport investments aren't just about transport, they are also about how transport cash can unlock and regenerate whole areas with housing.

Nonetheless, efficiency savings at TfL will still be big. TfL says: "In terms of savings we have already secured £9.8bn in savings (which will be delivered by 2017/18) and we have committed to saving a further £5bn by 2021/22."

Here are some savings made so far:

It's difficult to see how that won't include job losses and with those large efficiencies there will be more emphasis on TfL to make money commercially.

That'll mean optimising advertising spaces, more office developments and station retail developments.

The view from the mayor's critics is that he paid a premium on too many schemes - like the new bus - and hasn't offered value for money.

The Lib Dems on the London Assembly point to the fact that in the mayor's 2012 transport manifesto he said the new bus would "not cost more than an existing hybrid bus".

In fact, each one will cost £50,000 more.

The big question is will that affect the view from the Treasury?

The last time I visited the 1.2 mile (2km) long Connaught Tunnel was a year ago.

Then it was full of weeds, graffiti and had been derelict for years. Not anymore.

Now it looks like a construction site.

The tunnel was built in 1878 and Crossrail are going to use it as part of the route to Abbey Wood.

The bottom of the tunnel has been lowered to make room for the larger Crossrail trains.

And the major part of the project is a huge dam called the Cofferdam, which has been built to hold back the water from the docks.

Engineers have now pumped out the water and can now get to the tunnel beneath and renovate the tunnels.

What's interesting about this part of the project is they are using and embracing the industrial heritage.

Huge brick struts across the line have been preserved. The engineers have been pleasantly surprised at the condition on the soot-stained brickwork.

Embracing the heritage and using the tunnel has cost £50m.

The work is in stark contrast to the relatively quick and modern techniques which we have filmed being used with the Tunnel Boring Machines at the other end of the line.

The big question now is will we continue to see these techniques ?

Will we get "Crossrail 2" from the north to the south of the capital ?

London's campaign arguing for "sustained investment" in transport is just starting. Expect much much more of it.

But is the Treasury listening or has City Hall had its lot?

The problem with HS2 for Ealing, in west London, was the line followed the route of the London Underground Central Line.

This meant 18 road bridges - including the Hangar Lane gyratory- would have to have been knocked down.

That would have caused massive disruption.

Now HS2 say they have listened to residents, campaigners and Ealing Council and they believe tunnelling the section between Northolt and North Acton is a better option.

It means most of London will be tunnelled for HS2 until it gets to Ickenham in the borough of Hillingdon.

Last week the plans for Euston station, where the service will terminate, were drastically scaled back and now there are big changes for the Northolt corridor.

This is undoubtedly a victory for local campaigners in North Acton and Ealing. HS2 will say they are taking on board local opinion.

The wider implications are that groups right along the line will now think they can get changes and more mitigation.

The engineering photographs do not lie and they show some of the structures are in a very bad way.

There is serious erosion and cracking on seven bridges including parts of the North Circular and Chiswick Bridge.

In total the bridges carry thousands of vehicles a day.

One TfL document I read says without intervention the structures are a "real risk to network safety".

The timing is probably no coincidence as a long lobbying process for government money is just beginning.

TfL is making very loud noises that sustained investment in London's transport is needed.

Coupled with that, the Hammersmith flyover incident was a huge wakeup call for TfL.

In December 2011 the flyover had to be shut days before Christmas after engineers spotted structural defects which required urgent repairs. The initial work took three weeks.

More than £3bn is now being spent on roads over 10 years (subject to the government settlement) - £200m will be spent on seven structures by 2016 and £70m of that will go on the Hammersmith flyover alone.

If you talk to the RAC Foundation, it says the road system is at a similar point to the Underground 10 years ago.

It has had years of under investment that now needs rectifying.

It warns these structures could be just the tip of the iceberg as roads and structures, overseen by the local authorities, could harbour far more serious problems.

RAC Foundation says that is a "serious concern."

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If your child gets free travel with Zip Oyster cards you may find some unclaimed cash on their travel pass.

At the end of every school year, thousands of school children automatically have their Zip Oyster travelcards cancelled as they move into another age category.

The cards give free travel on buses and trams, but to get child fares on the Tube and trains parents have to load money onto the cards.

They were introduced in part so Transport for London (TfL) and the mayor could take them away from unruly children through a code of behaviour.

TfL says that in 2012, about 20,000 Zip Oyster photo cards were withdrawn.

However, at the end of the year not surprisingly there is quite a lot of money left on them.

The BBC's Freedom of Information (FOI) researcher Laura Francis has found that around £600,000 was unclaimed since 2010.

The amounts left on cards are small - at most £1.53 and as little as 7p - but in total it is a tidy sum for TfL.

Shashi Verma, TfL's Director of Customer Experience, said: "We encourage anyone who has finished with an Oyster card to have their outstanding balance reimbursed.

"Unused pay as you go balance on a Zip Oyster photo card can be reclaimed at any time at any London Underground ticket office or TfL Travel Information Centre, even when the card has expired."

There is a trend now for authorities to move the burden of public transport away from general taxation and the taxpayer, and more onto the fare payer.

A lot of people can't escape those increases but there is some evidence that some are.

I asked Full Fact, the independent fact-checking group, to find out what has happened to transport costs over the last decade. It makes very interesting reading.

It found that since 2002 average rail fares have increased by 60% and bus fares have risen by 66%.

However, pay hasn't kept up. It has increased by 32% over the same period and now the average annual wage in London is £34,900.

More pertinently perhaps, as proportion of household income, transport spend has actually stayed fairly static.

In 2001 on average £61 was spent each week on transport - 12.3% of household income.

By 2011, that weekly spend had risen to £67 a week - but only 11.6% of household income.

Of course, there is no such thing as an average commuter or family, but there could be a number of reasons why spend as a proportion of household income has stayed pretty flat.

Some commuters like Sian Morten, who I interviewed for a BBC London news report, have switched to cycling as it's cheaper.

There has also been a rise in concessions over the last decade. Home working and off-peak travel may have played a part.

It could also be the case that leisure travel is one of the the first things to go when reining in the household budget.

Not everyone can juggle their transport costs, but there is some evidence that some people are.

I'd be interested to hear from commuters who have found cheaper ways to get around other than cycling.

Transport Minister Norman Baker is not the first to criticise the often pointless messages travellers are bombarded with on trains.

He said last week: "We don't need to be told we are in a quiet carriage. That is why we went there in the first place.

"I don't know why people are told to read the safety cards. I've never seen a passenger read one.

"Passengers are told they are on a non-smoking train, which seems pointless, as all trains in Britain are non-smoking."

Well, now it looks like the rail industry is taking action.

First Great Western (FGW) announced on Tuesday it is cutting some announcements including one which tells passengers they cannot smoke, the location of standard and first class seating and 'mind the gap' at stations (where there is no gap).

A survey, carried out by FGW showed most people actually blocked out the announcements and ignored them, deeming them irrelevant.

FGW said: "One of the first to go will be "mind the gap" at every station stop, only to be said when it is appropriate at individual stations where the gap is greater than normal.

"Other announcements to be assigned to the railway siding in the sky include the scheduled arrival time at the final destination and "change here for connecting services to..."

"This will be enhanced by more relevant information on departure times and platform numbers rather than each and every connecting service. The research indicated that this is what customers value the most."

This probably won't be the last culling of the announcements as First Group, which runs FGW, also operates many of the UK's railways.

This should be an easy win for the Department for Transport as no-one will surely mourn the passing of pointless announcements?

It received a rapturous welcome from cyclists who have fought a long campaign for these improvements.

Much of the detail had been outlined previously by Transport for London (TfL) - such as a grid of cycle routes and the junction review - although the really eye-catching addition is the east-to-west "Crossrail for bikes".

Reputed engineers have told me that scheme could cost around £15m.

Looking at what details we have, you quickly get an indication of how this is very early days in that scheme.

Much has been made of a cycle way going on top of the A40 but there are actually plans for a cycleway to go below the Westway from Westbourne Park to Paddington.

Could we end up with one cycleway above the other?

You would think not, but it shows you at what stage the authorities are in talking to each other.

Also, the centre piece of the announcement was a CGI fly-through along Victoria embankment including blue, segregated cycle lanes.

But the route actually goes through a conservation area of historical importance.

Westminster Council turned down a cycling superhighway in 2008 due to the very same blue paint we see in the CGI.

It is still not keen on blue paint and already has concerns about the fly-through model put forward by TfL.

Critics say by putting out a rushed idea - that's already been rejected - it shows the scheme has been given little thought.

Westminster Council said the segregated lanes will have to fit in with the surroundings, so blue is probably out.

Councils are meeting TfL next week to start work on the detail and to start having an input.

Speaking to Sunday Politics London, Cycling Commissioner Andrew Gilligan said: "We are not doing the blue.

"There's blue in that video graphic (you showed) but that's just because we didn't have time to remove it....

"It's not going to be blue. It's because we consulted with them (Westminster Council) they are remarkably signed up."

Cyclists want change quickly but this scheme will be welcomed when they are delivered.

Many experienced campaigners know this is just the beginning of a long process so patience will be required.

The hope is the central section will be finished by 2016.

For the full interview with Andrew Gilligan watch Sunday Politics London on 10 March at 11:00 GMT.

That was five years ago and it has taken considerable political pressure from many quarters to get to today's announcement.

The plans are hugely ambitious and cycling campaigners are delighted. But the elephant in the room is funding.

Only part of this is budgeted for at present - this and other schemes will depend on the government grant to TfL staying static otherwise cuts will have to be made somewhere - and the Tube upgrade money is ring fenced.

It will also be another mayor who has to implement the lion's share of this idea.

There's no doubting the audacity of the scheme. Now it's all about delivery.

How bloggers changed city cycling

So, expect to see many more, probably including some longer eye-catching ones.

There will also be more focus and money spent on junctions.

The buzzword will be "step-change".

Aside from the infrastructure - which cyclists will no doubt judge when it is delivered - this is also a big day and a victory for London's cycling bloggers.

These sites - among others - started campaigning for improvements to cycling safety in the years before the last Mayoral election. They were a thorn in the side of the Boris Johnson administration:

Cycle London City blog

London Cyclist Blog

I Bike London

Vole O'Speed

As Easy As Riding A Bike

Their voices - and the message - got louder after a number of deaths, particularly around Bow roundabout.

They also began to shift the policy of more traditional organisations like the London Cycling Campaign, which in turn became more aggressive in its demands.

They were also helped by the campaign at The Times just prior to the last Mayoral Election.

Then the cycling lobby - usually a split and disconnected group - managed to get all the candidates to commit to improvements to cycling safety.

To give the Johnson administration credit, they have since engaged with the lobby, including some of the bloggers.

And now some of these internet campaigners have become involved and had direct input into an announcement set to be made tomorrow.

The cycling commissioner himself, Andrew Gilligan, has written and blogged about cycling for some time.

He has been critical of Transport for London and Cycling Superhighways on a few occasions.

Andrew Gilligan cycling blog

The headlines tomorrow will probably be about the practicalities of the new infrastructure.

But what it will also show is the power of bloggers in mobilising opinion and changing the political landscape.

Tomorrow we will see the mayor outline his vision for cycling over the next 10 years.

Is this the first transport policy moulded by bloggers?

The mayor has tried to cut pollution with cleaner buses, dust suppressors and green walls but London still breaches European limits.

And that means large EU fines loom. There are also court cases ongoing with the government under pressure to show it's cleaning up our air.

The authorities here are trying to show they are taking action.

The question is will this idea of an ultra low emission zone in 2020 be enough?

Legislation is already to an extent cleaning up cars and HGVs.

Hauliers have welcomed dropping stricter Euro V limits on HGVs.

But campaigners are really angry saying that is a backwards step.

What is really striking is the lack of any detail.

Transport for London has not even a timeline on a consultation and has not appointed any staff to look at this yet - so this is very early days.

Environmental lawyers currently taking the government to court over air quality say this is nothing more than a PR stunt. Without details it's difficult to know.

London First was created to lobby for the first Crossrail - now it is doing the same again and trying to startle the horses into action.

The real issue is London is growing and Tfl can only just keep up capacity wise with projects like Tube upgrades and Crossrail 1.

If it builds new lines they quickly become full - look at the success of the Overground. The thinking here is stop tinkering and build a brand new line to the underserved south even if it is two decades away.

The mayor has said he is in favour but money is tight, although Tfl has been working on Crossrail 2 routes for some time including this latest one. A consultation will begin at some stage.

What it needs now is hefty political will in central government and absolutely crucially - money.

This happens when your bank card and your Oyster card are next to each other in your wallet.

Transport for London (TfL) did warn passengers this could happen.

It could mean you could be charged twice for your fare, for example if you have a weekly travelcard loaded on your Oyster card and when getting on the bus you are charged on your bankcard.

I've also been contacted by TfL staff who are getting charged on their bank card instead of their free staff Oyster card.

The numbers are not high at the moment, Tfl claim they have only been contacted 60 times so far about incorrect charging.

But many people do not check their Oyster or bank statements.

That means the real number is certainly higher and as this system gets more popular it will only increase.

It is certainly worth keeping an eye on and keeping your bankcard and Oyster card separate.

Another solution suggested to me is an RFID blocking sleeve. That would stop the radio signal needed to take money off your bankcard.

TfL's Shashi Verma said: "When a contactless payment card and an Oyster card are presented simultaneously to an Oyster reader, bundled together in a wallet or purse for instance, the reader will reject the tap and no payment will be taken from either card.

"There is no possibility of both cards being charged.

"However, if a customer presents a wallet with two or more cards and there is a significant time gap before the second card is detected, this can result in the first card being charged which may not be the card the customer wanted to pay with.

"Since the launch on 13 December, 245,000 bus journeys have been made using a contactless payment card, now around 8,000-per-weekday.

"We have been contacted by just over one customer per day on average who have had their bus fare taken from their contactless payment card when they intended to use their Oyster card and we have given these customers a full refund.

"From our liaison with the payment card issuers, we believe that collectively they have dealt with a broadly similar number.

"However we have had no instances of two cards being charged simultaneously for the same fare."

Let me know how you're getting on.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has hailed the merits of 24-hour Tubes, but engineering has always got in the way.

Time is needed for clearing up, fixing problems and crucially now upgrade work.

In 2010, later opening plans were put on hold.

So what's changed?

Firstly the economic arguments have become stronger.

Also some of the upgrade work has been done. But also LU is lobbying for "sustained government investment" and so any improvement has to be seen within that wider picture.

There's still a long way to go. It doesn't help that unions are already furious they've been left out of the loop.

One told me that being involved in Crossrail was like his own Hoover Dam (the huge US dam built during the Great Depression) in terms of scale and personal achievement.

Many of these mining engineers have already worked on projects like the Channel Tunnel and the Jubilee line extension so they're not easily impressed.

Tunnelling is well under way on Crossrail, but for most Londoners the only thing they will have noticed are blue hoardings along its route.

I've been trying to get inside the tunnels for a while and on Thursday I was given the first rare opportunity to have a look and film in the tunnels deep under west London.

Compared to the power tunnels in Park Royal these tunnels are much larger.

So far 3km have been bored. There have been a few issues - for example, a hopper that carries soil at Paddington collapsed - but Crossrail workers now think they are making good progress.

I visited the tunnel boring machine TBM2 - called Ada - and to get to see her you have to take a 10-minute train journey in the tunnel.

Built in Germany, the machine is like something from a Ridley Scott sci-fi movie.

It bores out the clay and behind that the concrete slabs are slotted in. It works round the clock and only stops for maintenance.

If it stops it increases the risk of movement in the tunnel.

It's now under south Paddington and soon it will be under Hyde Park and so far the tunnel has only moved 1cm.

On average the team does 100m a week but it has done 200m in some parts.

On board there are toilets and a kitchen and it is hot, noisy work. Eventually there will be eight of these boring under London for the next three years.

The project will cost £15bn and it is being paid for by government, Transport for London (TfL), fare-payers and business rates. It will be finished in 2018.

This is just the beginning; while it may not be high profile at the moment, it is happening and it's happening below your feet.

I sense an improvement but it's only my impression so please give me your thoughts at the end.

Bear in mind it's not just London that has struggled in the snow, and obviously these things are very subjective for passengers.

The capital's top performer? Gritters timed their runs right and avoided the dreaded ice and grit skid fest of 2009. That meant very few buses had to be cancelled and most of the main roads were kept clear.

Of course timing and the length of the snowfall is crucial but standards seem to have improved since the bus fleet was suspended in 2009.

I visited the Transport for London (TfL) snow desk where it monitors road temperatures. It also co-ordinates salt.

Some boroughs were running out and TfL co-ordinated more deliveries.

The key routes are also more defined now to include bus depots and hospitals. If you live on a minor or side road though, these days you are pretty much left to fend for yourself and that meant a lot of skidding and prangs.

Cyclists and pedestrians have also complained that cycle routes were not gritted. I'm afraid these do not look like priorities anymore; it's all about the key routes.

Overall not bad but overrunning engineering works on Monday blotted their record. That compounded problems and meant Monday wasn't great.

They did recover quite quickly though but the components on the overground trains seem to struggle in snow and ice. The Metropolitan line also, again, had problems.

The last big snow storm in 2010 caused real problems due to the notorious third electric rail which stops working in the snow and ice. Here's a blog I wrote in 2010 on the problem.

What's really changed? Rail passengers faced long delays and cancellations again. Ghost trains and de-icing trains didn't work in places on Monday morning.

The train companies blamed Network Rail who said they needed more investment from government who said that was the plan in the long-term.

Train companies including South West Trains resorted to amended timetables very early on; that provoked anger from commuters who had their services cut like here in Weybridge.

It's difficult to see how this is going to change unless there is a substantial investment in infrastructure and conversion to overhead power lines. There has also been repeated criticism about the lack of information. That could be remedied much more easily.

Oh dear. Heathrow talks a good talk but if you run at near-capacity and something goes wrong then you are bound to hit problems. That has meant most of the horror stories seemed to have happened at Heathrow; stories of people being stuck on grounded planes for seven hours only to be left in the terminal.

British Airways has also been criticised by Labour's Jim FitzPatrick for handling it badly compared to other airlines.

Other airports have fared better - certainly they don't garner the same media coverage.

Gatwick has gone on the offensive and wants Heathrow to reduce the number of flights for three months during the winter.

Guess where those flights would go? Yep. Gatwick. Unsurprising moving flights for three months challenges the principle of what a hub is and how many "feeder" flights are needed.

The background is that the Davies commission is looking at aviation capacity in the South East.

Gatwick wants to be heard and be considered a player. However as many have pointed out, it wasn't that long ago the boot was on the other foot and Gatwick had problems.

Most interesting is the war of words now between the airports.

Let me know your thoughts. Am I being fair, too kind or too harsh?

The trains come down the line quickly and abruptly every minute or so and they look like a more modern Docklands Light Railway (DLR) train.

What is noticeable straight away is that where the driver should sit there are passengers - it is a driverless train and the trains are very, very regular.

Barriers similar to those on the Jubilee line protect all of the platforms so when the doors open the passengers simply pile on safely without the need for staff on the trains.

This is Ligne 1 in Paris and it runs east to west and serves tourist stops like Louvre-Rivoli and Champs Elysees.

It is now nearly fully automated, bar four trains, and what has happened in a city where the unions are strong is a real eye opener.

The operators RATP upgraded the line with full negotiation with the unions from as far back as 2003 when the idea first germinated. The pay-off for the unions was drivers were redeployed onto another line and were promoted.

There were no redundancies.

The system means trains can run every 85 seconds and the number of travellers is now 75,0000 a day. RATP thinks it could reach 90,0000.

RATP says says it can react very quickly now to surges in passenger numbers and it can run with no drivers in times of industrial unrest. It costs 1bn euros to develop.

Mayor of London Boris Johnson said in early 2012 he wanted to see an automated system in London to rival "Asian economies".

If London is serious about more automation and perhaps no drivers at all - and the Mayor has said that - then this is the kind of model that would be under consideration.

London Underground (LU) has watched Paris with interest.

LU's current policy as it stands is more automation with staff on board (perhaps not in the cabs) but it concedes some lines, not deep level lines like Waterloo & City, could be suited to staff-less trains.

It is at the start of a journey Paris began a decade ago and is gauging reaction carefully.

However, there are differences and obstacles to bear in mind.

Ligne 1 is not a deep line, the tunnels are well lit and they are very wide. There are also large numbers of security staff around on platforms and the stations are very close together.

RATP believes staff can be at any stranded train within five minutes.

Parisians I spoke to seemed pretty happy with automation although some did say they preferred having drivers. More automation is likely in the future.

Then there are the unions.

The transport union National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) will not support moving drivers from the cab into the carriage.

It says safety is crucial and drivers need to be in the cabs and it says it will strike over the issue.

Memories of the 7 July London bombings and the Kings Cross fire are, of course, still raw and many would baulk at unmanned trains in the capital.

But there could be storms brewing on the distant horizon and it won't just be left to the engineers to replicate Paris.

Over the next 10 or 20 years it will probably be decided in the court of public opinion and how that influences future mayoral policy and voters - and how much political will there is for a fight and an even bigger billion pound bill.

Would you want to see unmanned Tube trains like Paris?

A relatively smooth Olympics ensured the story was about the sport and not the transport but, at the risk of sounding like Scrooge, the rose-tinted spectacles can hide some of the issues that did arise.

The run up to the Games did not go well.

The M4 Boston Manor viaduct, the main motorway link from London to Heathrow Airport, had to be closed to all traffic after a crack was found in a "sensitive area" of the road structure in early July.

During the Games, a cyclist died close to the Olympic stadium and on the roads there were long queues on the A12 / A13 and at Hangar Lane gyratory as the traffic light timings were changed.

Drivers were confused by the Olympic lane sign and London's black cabbies accused Transport for London (TfL) of scaring their business away and creating a ghost town.

The Tube did have a handful of breakdowns.

There's no doubt many Londoners listened to advice and stayed away from town and changed their travel habits.

Was the message overstated by TfL?

Privately, I'm sure the bosses won't care and even they were surprised at how smoothly it went.

TfL said the Tube was busier than it had ever been but it seemed to be staggered across the day.

The big difference was the type of crowd and the goodwill created by the Olympic volunteers. It meant when the queues started at St Pancras International they were kept moving.

The new year means 2013 will bring transport bosses back to business with a bang.

The honeymoon glow after the Games is now a distant memory and money is very tight.

Commuters are facing above inflation fare rises - again - and big infrastructure projects like Crossrail and the Tube upgrades seem assured but other schemes being developed like Crossrail 2 will have to prove their worth.

London has had it pretty good in terms of capital spending and disquiet in the North is getting louder.

The vocal cycling lobby still awaits the Mayor's plans to turn London into a genuinely cycle friendly city and the mayor (as ever) wants more control over the train franchises (the Department for Transport seems to have had a change of heart and likes the idea in principle).

There is also concern over High Speed 2, capacity at Euston station and the battle over the future of our skies and the third runway at Heathrow rumbles on.

In the background the government could be looking at further cuts to London's transport budget.

Have I left anything out?

It uses the same technology you are now seeing in high street sandwich shops.

It will cost the same price as an Oyster single fare - £1.35 - but for now it will not be part of the daily cap. So it's meant to replace cash.

I've been given a look behind the scenes at the work that's been going on at Transport for London (TfL).

Every bus is now 3G integrated and it sends a signal straight away checking the card has enough funds on it.

For the last year a small van has been driving around all the bus routes testing the 3G signal. In the back a "windmill" has been rigged up which touches an Oyster card onto a reader.

More than 35,000 passengers a day get on a bus and then realise they don't have enough on their Oyster card so this will offer an alternative.

This is the start of big changes for ticketing in London.

Next year we will see this on the Tube and the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) but for now though it won't be included in the daily fare cap, which means passengers never spend more than the price of an equivalent Day Travelcard.

The Oyster card has been a big success but using bankcards is the next generation.

Other cities are watching very closely and many won't bother introducing their own smartcard systems if the bankcard system works.

The cost of rolling it out on the buses is £5m and for the Tube it will be £74m but the payback is substantial for TfL.

It thinks it can save £30m a year by not collecting cash from buses.

It's not difficult to see that one day nearly everyone will be using a bankcard or Oyster on the transport network.

I was given a quick tour as the work progresses to redevelop the station.

I was trying to show that as well as a train company's dividend, fares are increasing to pay for this kind of investment.

The cost of the whole redevelopment - including the Western concourse - is £550m.

Some locally have questioned if that is value for money.

The clock tower gives a great view over the old front of King's Cross.

That is being knocked down to make way for a pedestrianised area.

It'll be open next summer.

The "temporary" structure from 1972 will finally be demolished on Christmas Day.

Meanwhile rail season ticket holders will face increases of on average 4.2% in the New Year.

Off-peak tickets will probably go up by more than that.

An announcement is expected soon.