London Mayor: let's carry twice as many rail passengers, use tolls to pay for new ring road

The London Mayor has set out the investment he thinks is needed in transport infrastructure up to 2050, including a tolled new inner ring road and increasing rail capacity to carry twice as many passengers.

The ambitions are for the period beyond the Mayor's transport strategy that covers the decades to 2031, and range from the costed - a £2.6bn Bakerloo line extension to south-east London - to less worked-up ideas, such as a possible Crossrail 3 and new extensions to the London Overground. The latter would connect not only Old Oak Common, but also Bexleyheath in the east and Hounslow in the west.

The extension of the Bakerloo line is the most detailed of the new transport schemes in the London Infrastructure Plan 2050, and an alignment from Old Kent Road to Catford in south-east London is highlighted. The strategy suggests that the Overground and commuter rail lines can also be expanded to carry nearly twice as many rail passengers by 2050, "equivalent to a second Underground network".

The strategy also champions the Mayor's idea of a new inner ring road, which could cost £30bn, and suggests that this may have to be tolled, "to lock in the benefits and avoid generation of additional traffic volumes".  

The road and transport upgrades are needed despite average trip rates remaining stable because London's population is planned to increase by 37% by 2050.