£1.6bn agreed with strings

摘要

In return for a £1.6billion bailout agreed on 14 May, the government has instructed Transport for London to return services to pre-Covid-19 pandemic levels, reintroduce fare collection and congestion charging, reduce concessionary travel availability and accept two of its nominees on the board. TfL's finance committee says the package -a £l.lbillion grant and £505million in loans - leaves a £3.2billion gap in its budget for 2020/21. Without the bailout, mayor Sadiq Khan said TfL would run out of money. Fare collection was abandoned when TfL introduced centre door boarding on 20 April. As a first step towards its restoration, passengers on most routes operated by New Routemasters were required to tap in from 23 May using the card readers next to the centre doors. The exceptions were those routes where the readers had been removed. Passengers on single-door buses also had to resume using the card reader beside the driver.