The Deputy Mayor for Transport, Seb Dance, called on the Government to provide a long-term funding deal for Transport for London (TfL) to help protect jobs and contracts across the country.
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Visiting TfL suppliers in Derby, the Deputy Mayor reiterated how thousands of jobs around the UK linked to major transport projects in London could be at risk if TfL does not receive long term funding.
The Deputy Mayor travelled to Derby to see the purpose-built Alstom train factory where the Class 345 trains running on the new Elizabeth line were built.
Employing 6,000 people across the UK and Ireland, Alstom design and build trains at Derby, the UK’s largest train factory. Alstom is one of TfL’s leading suppliers, having also built the new Tube trains on the Circle and District line, as well as the new trains on the London Overground.
TfL’s contract with Alstom to build the Elizabeth line trains supported 760 UK manufacturing jobs and 80 apprenticeships.
In Derby, Seb also visited Tidyco, an SME with around 70 employees, which is a supplier of hydraulic and pneumatic products to the UK rail industry. Tidyco is key supplier of Tube train parts to TfL, with TfL’s million-pound contracts making it a key driver in the business’ success.
TfL contracts support tens of thousands of jobs outside London and contribute around £7bn to the UK economy, with 55 pence of every pound spent on London Underground investment going outside of London – indicating how essential sustained funding for TfL is to the wider UK economy. 
London’s transport network has seen exciting additions and modernisation this year with both the opening of the Elizabeth line and the re-opening of the Bank branch of the Northern line, and the new southbound Northern line platform and concourse at Bank station.
The Mayor has ambitions to rapidly expand the order book to suppliers across the country, such as ordering new trains and parts that will be built outside of London for Crossrail 2 and the Bakerloo line extension, and new trains for the Piccadilly, Central and Bakerloo lines, which would create more highly skilled manufacturing jobs.
But to continue projects like this, TfL needs a sustainable long-term capital funding deal from government.
TfL's current short-term funding deal expires on the 24th of June. Without a long-term capital deal by this date, TfL will be forced to start work on enacting its managed decline scenario. That would mean an additional 80 bus routes cut (an overall 18 per cent reduction), and a nine per cent reduction in tube services, equivalent to closing an entire line. ■