I’m an all-too-regular user of London’s somewhat controversial train lines; I commute to school by train most days and at least once every weekend without fail. A few short months ago now, I realised that my train to travel home from school was no longer running - the 15:33 to Horsham had been discontinued. This came as a shock to me - and I almost got emotional - as I had travelled down that line at least three times a week for the nearly five years prior.
As it turned out, the Southern services had been much reduced in my area, and mostly replaced by Thameslink trains. This didn’t serve me much good however, as I was made to catch a slower train home (but it does now help me get home from my current school much quicker). Despite this - and the continued strikes against low pay and horrible work environments from many tube and train workers - I still feel like I owe something to the train lines which have (quite literally) carried me through most of my secondary school years.
However, in the news recently, there has been much political turmoil over the development of a new London and South-East counties train line: Crossrail. Previously, those overseeing development had predicted and stated an opening date of December 2018, but this has now been severely delayed to “Autumn 2019”, which is to put “significant financial strain” on Transport for London according to the credit rating agency Moody’s.
This is mostly because of a loss of potential ticket revenue that could have been made had it opened on time. And apart from the political embarrassment this has presented - the Queen was meant to unveil this project at its planned time of completion - its financial impact has been made evident by the statistics. In 2020-21, TfL were anticipated to make £829m from operating income, and this was set to be the first year the Crossrail made direct surplus. Following the delay, Moody’s predicts now that 2020-21 will only bring in a maximum of £400m, therefore “weaken[ing TfL’s] ability to cope with any unforseen costs or revenue shortfalls”.
The drama continues to affect the London population. It’s a mess with a domino effect, causing trouble to us down on the streets and those in the higher positions, including Sadiq Kahn, the Mayor of London, who faced a grilling on ITV News on the topic as he avoided the key questions.
