Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, has said that he is still keen to see extensions to the Tramlink system but that, as always, it all depends on funding. Mr Johnson was replying to an open letter from the Chairman of the Develop Croydon Forum, Richard Plant when making his comments and he said that TfL continue to work closely with Bromley, Croydon, Merton and Sutton to look at any economic benefits which could be gained by an extension.
The last draft Business Plan from TfL made no specific mention of funding for extensions to Tramlink but it has been confirmed that Transport for London will be working alongside the affected Council’s to see whether any of the proposed extensions – Crystal Palace, Sutton and Bromley – would be viable. These discussions are likely to continue until June this year, after which, presumably, a further decision will be made as to whether to continue with the plans. An extension to Crystal Palace is still expected to be the most likely to go ahead at this stage.
Mr Johnson also made mention of the funding that TfL had put towards improvements on the Tramlink network: “£30m has been allocated to removing sections of single track, building an additional Tramlink platform at Wimbledon and the purchase of four new trams. These improvements will increase capacity and enhance reliability on one of the busiest sections of the Tramlink network, and will facilitate the extension of Line 4 services to Wimbledon.”