I want to get more people back on Tube and buses, says new TfL boss
LONDON’S new transport commissioner today vowed to get commuters back on the Tube and buses, saying it was vital for the city’s future prosperity.
Andy Byford said his priorities for his first two years in charge were getting Transport for London back on an even keel financially by restoring passenger numbers to pre-Covid levels, and getting Crossrail open.
Passenger numbers fell by 90 per cent during lockdown, creating a £3.2 billion hole in TfL’s finances.
Mr Byford said: “[This is] clearly an unsustainable situation financially. For the economic wellbeing of TfL, but also of the city. We have got to get people back on to public transport.” The Tube would be made “cleaner than it’s ever been” to minimise the risk of coronavirus. Patrols will enforce mask-wearing on buses, and as many services as possible will be run to help passengers to socially distance.
Mr Byford, 54, said: “Public transit is clean, it is safe, it’s the best way of getting around the city. What we do not want is people to migrate to cars. If we end up with a car-led recovery, we will just end up with gridlock.”
Asked if Crossrail would finally open next summer, two-and-a-half years late, Mr Byford said: “I’m still reviewing the programme. I’m in discussions with the Crossrail board, and I’m waiting to get their analysis of what impact Covid has had before I can answer that question.
“I have come here determined to get Crossrail finished … I will take a very hands-on approach.”
Mr Byford began work as a station foreman on the Tube in 1989, his father worked for London Transport and his grandfather drove a London bus for 40 years, including during the Blitz.
He will earn £335,000 a year plus a bonus worth up to half his salary and will use the Tube and buses to get around. “I have never owned a car. I do not have a driver’s licence. I have failed my driving test twice. That is my claim to shame. I walk a lot.
I can cycle, but I don’t have a bike at the moment.”
He wants to rebuild morale at TfL, “which has taken a knock” with 7,000 of its 25,000 staff on furlough. “You cannot run a transport system from a desk,” he said. “I have already said to the staff, ‘You will see a lot of me on the system’.”
He was headhunted for the TfL job after resigning in January as head of New York City Transit Authority, where he became known as Train Daddy, a term first used by a fan of his attempts to improve the system. “It caught on and I used to get people come up to me in the street in New York and say [adopts accent], ‘Hey, Train Daddy, how ya doin?’
“I also want the customers to see me, not to garner some sort of Train Daddy following… but I do believe the travelling public of London have a right to know who the commissioner is because, at the end of the day, they pay my wages.”
He was interviewed by Mayor Sadiq Khan, who then called him to offer him the job. “I accepted immediately. I thought we warmed to each other straight away. I recognised in him someone that shared my passion for transport, someone that had a vision.”