TfL bosses stopped claiming expenses during the summer as the Elizabeth Line hit the rocks
Transport for London (TfL) bosses did not claim any expenses over the summer while it was embroiled in troubles regarding the £15.4bn Elizabeth Line.
From July to September, TfL bosses claimed no expenses for work-related activities such as travel costs, dinners and work mobile phones for the first time since 2013, the first year for which data is available.
In 2013, former TfL commissioner Peter Hendy came under fire for claiming expenses for nearly 400 taxis on expenses.
In July it was announced that Crossrail, which will stretch from Reading and Heathrow in the west to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east, was running around £600m over budget. A month later, after a series of assurances, it was announced that the project would open next autumn instead of this December.
Hendy's departure in 2015 seems to have prompted a more restrained spending culture at TfL and since the incumbent Mike Brown was appointed commissioner.
Brown claimed no expenses between April and June this year, and only claimed £112 for a lunch in February.
The decline in expenses-claiming coincides with London mayor Sadiq Khan's pledge to reorganise a "flabby" TfL on taking office in 2016.
Under his watch TfL has embarked on a costs-cutting drive through job axes and cheaper ways of working. In its five-year business plan – to be published at the end of this year – TfL pledged to save £800m a year by 2021.
Yesterday TfL came under fire for the state of its finances in the wake of the Crossrail delay, which the London Assembly estimated would cost it £200m next year.
Chair of the assembly's budget committee Gareth Bacon accused TfL of "maxing out its corporate credit card" to keep the project afloat until March next year.
Khan also faced renewed criticism over his decision to freeze fares, which has left a £640m revenue hole.
TfL board papers released yesterday revealed that spending on the delayed project caused TfL to exceed its capital expenditure by £67.1m, while its cash balance has also decreased by £724m over the year to date to £1.2bn.
Of that total, £195m has been set aside to deliver Crossrail – a 76 per cent drop on the same time the previous year, when £821m was set aside to deliver the project.
TfL told CityAM this was the last of the original funding and, since the second quarter, an additional £300m had been injected into the project, with £350m of further funding recently agreed with government to be made available.
Chair of the London Assembly's transport committee Caroline Pidgeon said: "At a time when TfL is cutting bus services but still facing a £1bn revenue deficit, some personal restraint by senior TfL officers is the very least most Londoners would expect."