London will say ‘bring on next one’ when we open Crossrail, transport chief claims

Mike Brown winces slightly when he is reminded of the rocky early days of his relationship with Sadiq Khan. London’s Transport Commissioner got off to an uncomfortable start with his new boss after inadvertently getting caught up in the mayoral election campaign.

Transport for London had put a £1.9 billion price tag on his fare freeze proposal — higher than Labour’s own £450 million estimate. Unsurprisingly, and to Mr Brown’s dismay, it was leapt on by the Tories. Just days into his new administration, Mr Khan was described by aides as “bruised”. Word was put out that Mr Brown was expected to prove himself. He very quickly did that. These days the two men have what both sides characterise as a strong working relationship.

“In the first few days of a transition from one mayor to another clearly there are differences of approach from those two mayors. But I’m really proud of the way the organisation has responded and I’m delighted to be part of the Mayor’s team.”

The commissioner is now a born-again supporter of Mr Khan’s fare freeze, having previously been wary. Critics claim the move, which costs about £640 million over four years, has contributed to TfL’s difficult financial position.

But Mr Brown insists that it is “entirely helpful” for Londoners and “entirely manageable” for TfL — adding that he did have a choice over whether to support it. “I ultimately did have a choice which was whether to stay and implement it — or not. I decided to stay,” he says. “Making London’s transport system truly accessible and affordable for Londoners is a really great legacy that I hope we can leave”.

He is bullish about the state of TfL’s finances, despite the fares freeze, falling passenger numbers and the loss of a £700 million government subsidy, and insists there is no crisis ahead. Many transport experts are not so confident. The organisation is heading for a £1 billion operating deficit this year — which Mr Brown puts down to the “huge cost” of the new Elizabeth line, or Crossrail.

The new east-west tunnel under London opens in December with, they hope, an upsurge in fares income then following. But TfL’s financial predictions are entirely dependent on a massive 30 per cent increase in passenger revenue in 2021-22. With falling numbers of people using the Tube, the only profitable bit of the transport empire, is that really achievable?

Mr Brown is optimistic. He is convinced the new Elizabeth line won’t just take people off the Tube (which would be revenue-neutral for TfL) but will attract new passengers as well. Capacity is also being boosted on other lines.

The TfL chief accepts that the loss of the government subsidy is a “big burden” and that there are some “tough calls” to make but points to the hundreds of millions of pounds in savings — including from merging engineering functions and consolidating office space — that “sets us up very favourably” for the future. If they pull it off, they will have achieved what many believe to be impossible.

Mr Brown, 53, first joined London Underground in 1989 and worked his way up to chief operating officer before leaving in 2008 to run Heathrow. He was back at TfL two years later as boss of the Tube, before taking over from Sir Peter Hendy as commissioner in 2015.

He said at the time that he would rather give up his spacious office on Victoria Street than make deep cuts to the transport network. He has done just that, his desk now behind a glass partition in a corner of an open plan office in Southwark. Mr Khan used to describe TfL as “good, but flabby” but Mr Brown shies away from using the same term. “Those are his words, not mine,” he says after being asked for the third time whether he agrees. “There was certainly some fat in the system, if that helps.”

A top priority is protecting capital programmes like the £1.5 billion modernisation of the deep Tube lines, the £600 million Northern line extension and station upgrades including Victoria and Tottenham Court Road.

His optimism stretches to Crossrail 2, which he is determined will happen even though the Government appears to be cooling on the idea.

He is looking at creative ways by which London funds more than 50 per cent of the project to build a new north-south rail link across the city. He thinks that when the Elizabeth line opens, Londoners will say: “Bring on the next one!”

Mr Brown also believes that relations with the unions have improved under Mr Khan, who made a “zero strike” pledge which was broken within months. Did that put TfL under pressure to deliver? “No, I really don’t feel that at all.” The Mayor had been “very supportive” of constructive dialogue.

The biggest industrial relations flashpoint on the horizon — driverless trains — looks like it has been avoided for now: “I actually believe first and foremost in the safety of passengers and people travelling around on our network. That’s why I think for the foreseeable future the next generation of trains on the Underground will have somebody on them.”

Mr Brown reveals he met the global chief executive of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, for a second time, since it took TfL to court over its ban. He said there was now some “positive evidence” of a change in tone from the taxi app.

Amid his many priorities, Mr Brown believes that the safety of Londoners is the single most important. He has embraced the Mayor’s Vision Zero, which aims to eradicate deaths involving buses by 2030 and those resulting from road traffic collisions by 2041. “I actually think it’s the responsibility of TfL. We are the only organisation really to grip holistically with this,” he says.

But he also wants to protect Londoners from threats from further afield, such as a retaliatory cyber-attack on the Underground by Russia in the wake of the Salisbury nerve agent attack. Mr Brown said TfL’s “very best brains” were working on protecting the Tube’s computer network.

“Do we consider all those issues? Absolutely. Would I want to talk about it? Absolutely not,” he says. “No open, free society unfortunately can be absolutely sure of protecting against everything. Never will I be complacent on this issue but there’s a lot going on that we continue to develop.”