London needs driverless Tube like Paris, says Grant Shapps

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has warned bus routes may have to be cut if government funding ends

Transport for London (TfL) has received a final funding offer from the government in order to help it recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said.

Mr Shapps told BBC London TfL needed to move towards "driverless trains" in order to modernise "like Paris".

Talks between the government and TfL have been continuing for weeks and the existing deal expired at midday.

More than £5bn in emergency funds has been provided to TfL since May 2020.

There have been repeated rows between the government and TfL over its funding and the cause of its financial woes.

Grant Shapps previously said London mayor Sadiq Khan's claim that London's transport network was being "levelled down" was hard to reconcile

Government funding deals have been repeatedly extended, but Mr Shapps is insistent the current offer is the last financial package TfL would receive.

"This is the latest and indeed the last such payment, which should see TfL get back to its own financial stability the year after next," Mr Shapps said.

"It is a generous offer, which enables the mayor to do all the things he wanted to do in terms of investment pre-Covid and it will enable us to move to a more advanced TfL as well, where working practices are up to date."

TfL's existing funding deal expired at midday on 3 August

The Department for Transport says the latest cash offer would take TfL's emergency funding since the start of the pandemic to more than £6bn, and would support Tube upgrades, extensions and other major projects.

But Mr Shapps said TfL needed to accept that "modernisation" is "required in order to run things".

"To give you one example, other European cities, even Paris for example, have moved ahead and now have driverless trains - the London underground doesn't.

"We do need to move forward on some of these modernisations as well and this package urges and requires TfL to do that.

"The balance we have come to here is the right one. It is the only offer which is on the table. There will not be a further one, but we will work with TfL on the technical details to assist them.

He added: "I very much look forward to this being put to bed so that Londoners don't have to keep hearing about stories about TfL needing more money and coming out with the begging bowl."

Earlier on Wednesday, TfL commissioner Andy Byford said every other major transport system around the world received central government funding.

He said London needed the same if it was to have a transport network that could "continue to support homes, jobs, opportunities and economic growth".

Mr Byford added: "We have previously set out to government that we would need £927m for the remainder of this year, as well as a long-term capital funding deal to support London's economic recovery.

"We are in active discussion with the government to ensure that the draft funding proposal that they have made is fair and deliverable and can prevent the managed decline of the capital's transport network."

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