Boris Watch

TfL Press Releases April 2008 - 29

TfL Press Releases May 2008 (so far) - 1

May not mean anything, after all there has been a Bank Holiday weekend in that lot, but we should see about one a day really.

In other rune reading news, over at uk.transport.london John Band thinks the TfL leadership are safe:

[Y]esterday I played crazy golf with the Times’s Westminister correspondent and a corporate
finance bloke from TfL; they both reckon there’s no chance in hell that Boris is going to sack O’Toole, and that it’s unlikely he’ll sackHendy…

while Paul Corfield quotes Andrew Gilligan as saying they’re out on their ears come the summer:

Mr Gilligan says Hendy will be gone by the summer in his Standard article today.  The only reason for delay is that potential replacements are asking too much money.   Gilligan also says that Boris needs a rail experienced commissioner rather than a bus one - odd given that Mr Hendy has a large amount of knowledge about all the modes he’s responsible for.

Hendy is on £320k a year, which is a lot, but if what Paul reports is true* then it suggests that Boris is putting cutting the costs of the GLA ahead of finding the best man for the job.  Boris Watchers take note.

Elsewhere on the transport side:

• the first new London Overground train is taking shape
• the GE19 bridge for the East London Line Extension was successfully moved over the weekend (this is what I was expecting a press release for, incidentally, along with the ELLX Phase 2 work that Ken hinted had been approved, although this hasn’t been officially announced)
• a Transport & Works Act application has been made for the next DLR extension, to Dagenham

There’s a fair bit of momentum to dissipate at TfL and the pounds are going into the ground at a rate of knots, but you’ve got to keep the pipeline stoked with new projects.  Ironically, Boris is going to spend a good deal  of time unveiling shiny new bits of Ken Livingstone’s legacy, and we’ll be watching to make sure he does the decent thing and gives credit where credit is due.

* Yes, it’s Gilligan, a partisan tabloid hack who’s spent months smearing Livingstone, but why would he now spend time smearing Boris?

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