Transport for London has a new interim Commissioner. One Andy replaces another Andy. Out goes Andy Byford. In comes Andy Lord.
It was a surprise when Andy Byford stepped down as the leader of Transport for London after only two years. He had seen the capital through the pandemic and secured a funding deal from central Government. But only after a long, hard fight and a lot of bitter words. He was seen as a success.
His replacement is less of a surprise. Andy Lord has been at TfL for three years. He joined as managing director of London Underground in 2019, and subsequently became chief operating officer. But he was already battle-hardened by seven years as operations director for British Airways - the longest tenure of anyone in that similarly demanding role.
In a rather dingy and careworn conference room at the bottom of TfL’s offices in Blackfriars, a couple of weeks into his new role and in the middle of industrial action on both the Underground and the Overground, Andy Lord set out his position in an interview for members of the Railway Industry Association.
His clear aim: to reassure the rest of the industry that New Andy is business-as-usual: continuity, but with continuing change. Evolution not revolution.
RailReview: When your staff leave their work and walk out to stand on picket lines, it suggests that relations between you have broken down. What are you doing about that?
Andy Lord: We have industrial action by the RMT on the Tube, and by Unite on some of the surface network.
The dispute is different to the one on national rail, which is related to pay and working conditions. On the Tube it is around jobs, conditions and pensions. We haven’t put any proposals on the table about pensions. The last thing we need, when we are trying to ensure the economic recovery of the city, is industrial action.
TfL has been through some tough times in the pandemic. We’ve seen revenues fall as low as 4% of pre-COVID. We had to go the Government for support, and we’ve received £6 billion of funding.
We have to modernise the way we work. We have to deliver efficiencies. We have to become financially sustainable. But there are no job losses.
It’s a condition of our funding agreement that we have to review our pension arrangements. But there are no proposed changes to that pension, and that is the area driving the industrial action. We think it’s unnecessary, and not in the best interests either of their members or of the organisation.
I hope we will find a way through this. It’s really hard when one side of the table believes that industrial action will change what they perceive as what the Government wants to do.
The reality is that we secured a funding agreement, without which we would not have the TfL we have today, and without which they would not have job security.
Underpinning all of your plans, all of your ambitions, is the changing pattern of travel into and within London. After the pandemic, as people get used to new ways of working, how do you see that pattern evolving?
At the height of the pandemic, we were actively discouraging people from using the network, in line with Government advice. Now, weekend and leisure traffic are almost back to 2019 levels. Weekends are regularly back in the high 90% area. But the real issue for us is Mondays and Fridays, with most people only working two or three days a week in offices.
Across an average week, we are at 80% to 83% ridership on the Tube, and 88% to 90% on the buses. But we really need more people back onto the network across the working week.
Look over the central London horizon. South Western Railway’s morning peak is still stuck at only 53% of pre-pandemic levels into Waterloo. That commuting from the suburbs and beyond has gone, hasn’t it?
There is a structural change, no doubt. We are seeing quite different geographical splits. The East and North into the City are almost back to normal in the peak. The West and the South West are very different. I come in from the South West myself, and I can see the difference on the main line network.
We have to find new ways to encourage people. For example, we are working with Canary Wharf to see how they can turn it into a destination as well as just office accommodation. They’re building a new life science park which will be directly between the Elizabeth line and the Docklands Light Railway. So that creates a new opportunity.
The Elizabeth line is your big story of 2022. We’ve just seen the latest phase of opening, with trains from Reading running into the central tunnels for the first time. What do you take away from the opening that you can apply to future projects - for both you and your supply chain?
It really is the jewel in the crown of the London transport network. I was on the very first train from Heathrow Terminal 5 at 0752 on the Sunday morning. It was really quite a moment.
The Elizabeth line shows what can be done when we get long-term investment decisions in public transport. It enables economic recovery and growth. We have the opportunity in the long term to get more investment into the network, and that benefits our supply chain partners across the rail industry, and across the country.
We are seeing some of that: the new Piccadilly Line trains are being built at Goole, in East Yorkshire. And there are more infrastructure contracts yet to be awarded.
Crossrail 2? Ever?
Well, wouldn’t we love that! That would be amazing. The route is safeguarded. I think the Bakerloo Line extension is probably slightly higher up the agenda. We’ve proven the benefit of long-term investment decisions.
Let’s talk about money. Andy Byford secured what was called a long-term funding deal. In fact, it was only for 19 months. And this is a £10bn a year organisation with 27,000 staff, where infrastructure projects can take decades. How do you go about securing a funding arrangement that is measured in years and not months?
The deal is longer-term, in that it takes us to March 2024. We will be operationally financially sustainable by then, which means we will be able to stand on our own two feet- at least from an operational expenditure perspective.
There is a clause in the agreement where the Government agrees to work with us around long-term capital funding for major investment decisions, such as further rolling stock renewal, further extensions, signalling renewal.
I am really keen to work with the new Secretary of State and his ministerial team, to see how we can start making progress on that.
One of the things I’ve done since starting as MD of the Tube is building more strategic relationships with our suppliers - looking at how, despite the funding challenges, we could secure some longer-term commercial contracts that give all sides the certainty to invest in skills and training. That’s really critical for us. We have to deliver value for money, making the most of every pound that is spent.
