Transport for London (TfL) does not have enough money to fund its share of the Elephant & Castle tube station upgrade because of the Covid-19 pandemic – but is still recommending the project goes ahead.
The work on the station is meant to be joint-funded by TfL and third parties like Delancey, one of the companies redeveloping the surrounding area. Works would include a ticket office, new escalators, lifts and entrance, as well as connecting tunnels between the Northern line to the Bakerloo line.
TfL is supposed to be funding the station fit out and entrance but said that it does not have enough money to do that, which means that “the full scheme is currently undeliverable as originally envisaged”, the transport agency said in a report this week.
But the report, published ahead of TfL’s investment committee meeting next Wednesday (October 13), recommends that the “core scope of works” funded by Delancey go ahead – with the transport agency to find the money for its part of the project at some point in the future.
“Rather than impede the implementation of the development which will provide significant regeneration benefits to London, it has been agreed with London Borough of Southwark and the GLA to use only existing third party funding to deliver a core scope of works which includes the new station box, enabling works and connecting tunnels,” the report said.
“This proposal defers the station-fit out and station opening until TfL can commit its share of the funding in the future, but crucially enables the development, with new homes, education, office and leisure to proceed.”
TfL said this week that it wants £1bn-1.5bn per year in government investment from the 2023/2024 financial year. The agency also said it needs £500m to keep trains, trams and buses running until the end of March next year, and another £1.2bn for the twelve months afterwards, in its submission to Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s spending review.
TfL has been hit hard by the pandemic, with most people originally told to avoid public transport and work from home. The government has invested nearly £4bn in the agency since the first Covid-19 lockdown – but London transport chiefs have been forced to cut costs, including shelving the long-planned Bakerloo Line extension down the Old Kent Road.
Liberal Democrat chair of the London Assembly transport committee Caroline Pidgeon is set to ask mayor Sadiq Khan on Thursday (October 14) if TfL still plans to go ahead with the ticket hall upgrade now that the Bakerloo Line has been shelved.