Boris Watch

Who said this?

TfL’s wider investment programme, including much needed work on the tube to provide step free access, cooling     solutions, and station capacity improvements to relieve congestion, is at risk. The only plausible justification for the excesses of the     PPP is that it guaranteed long term funding for the tube. Now is the time for Government to validate that position. We are in danger, if the right decisions are not made, of jeopardising not just the future of the tube but of London itself.  A world class city needs a world class tube.

Boris?  Ken?  Peter Hendy?

Actually, it’s Tim O’Toole, from the Foreword to this year’s Underground PPP review.  Age has not mellowed him, nor his strongly stated opposition to the PPP foisted on London by, well, Gordon Brown, but now very much Boris Johnson’s problem, and one that, barring repeated and unanswered calls for more cash, he’s rather reticent about confronting.  Next year’s report will make interesting reading, but it’s wise to load up the memory banks with the current state of play so we can assess the new Mayor’s contribution to sorting the mess out.  Keeping Tim O’Toole would seem to be a wise move.

Here’s the man himself at Harrow-on-the-hill last year, getting in the way of my photo:

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