Transport planners to be hit by Chancellor's elimination of subsidies for capital's network - claim

Transport campaigners have sounded the alarm over the phasing out of subsidy for the capital's transport system, which they say will hit transport planners.

A Financial Times article says that despite investment in recent years, the network "still struggles" with "overcrowding" and "delay" - and its population is set to increase by a quarter. It quotes Professor Tony Travers of the London School of Economics as remembering a “threadbare" system in the 1990s and saying the system needs "a lot of money" to "stop it getting worse".

Stephen Joseph of the Campaign for Better Transport tells the newspaper that "almost nowhere" do you have a major transport network without subsidy. He fears for the staff developing major new transport infrastructure and for bus services.

But Sean McKee of the London Chambers of Commerce is quoted by the FT as saying there are "more ways of raising money for schemes than going to the Government... this is London, the place is awash with long-term investors".