BUILDING CROSSRAIL 2, devolving responsibility for suburban rail services to Transport for London and creating a south London metro are all key ambitions stated in London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s draft transport strategy.
The strategy, which is open for consultation until 2 October, seeks a shift away from car usage so that by 2041 80% of trips in the capital are made on foot, by cycle or using public transport. To achieve this, it is estimated the public transport system will at this point need to cater for around 15 million trips per day.
As well as highlighting the need for Crossrail 2, the case for transferring control of suburban rail services from the Department for Transport to TfL is also restated. This would cover routes within the South Eastern, South Western, South Central and Great Northern franchises ‘as soon as practicably possible’, with the aim of improving satisfaction levels, reliability, frequencies and station environments. This would then make creation of a London suburban metro offering improved frequencies, journey times and interchange opportunities ‘much simpler and faster’. The aim would be to deliver the suburban metro improvements by the late 2020s.
