TfL: puts £15bn price tag on transport upgrades London would need with Heathrow expansion

TfL has elaborated on its claims that the Airports Commission has underestimated the travel demand created by a Heathrow third runway and overestimated the likely public transport share of passenger travel.

It told the Greater London Authority transport committee that it could cost between £15bn and £20bn for necessary improvements to surface transport so London's transport networks could deal with the surge in demand. This comes after TfL said in September that the Commission had failed to forecast a close-to-capacity third runway - with 148m passengers per annum compared to 73m today - and "fundamentally underestimated the environmental impact" of an expanded Heathrow.

Richard De Cani, TfL's director of strategy and policy said: "It's a level of crowding and congestion that we believe would start to impact quite significantly on the whole performance of the transport network across west and south-west London." The Standard reports today that the Cabinet may not decide on airports expansion this year.