Sadiq Khan doesn't have eight deputy mayors he has ten. Boris Johnson had seven but the latest Mayor added positions for Health and the Creative Industries to the list. On the face of it, this seems like a sensible delegation of responsibility as each role is effectively a full time job given the complexities of managing services in a huge city like London. If you can explain to us why we should be concerned about this structure of governance please do.On the issue of six figure salaries for TfL staff, this also has to be seen in the context of a large and complex organisation. Good managers with experience cost that much and will leave if you don't pay them the market rate plus TfL will have to employ a lot of people with specialist skills - accountants, lawyers, IT professionals for whom they are paying the market rate.I would imagine by far the largest proportion of staff being paid six figures are engineers who, as with the other professions, can't be got on the cheap. The fact that there are some highly paid people at TfL doesn't prove that there is endemic overpaying. If you can provide some actual evidence that this is happening, once again, I am sure people would give it due consideration.Like all large organisations, public sector and private sector, there are bound to be people employed who are not worth what they are paid but you are deluding yourself if TfL could pay for investment in projects like the Piccadilly line by payroll efficiencies. The total annual salary bill for all staff is about the same the total investment cost of the Piccadilly line signalling. Your plan could work but you would have to persuade all employees to turn up for work for a year without pay.Circling back to the original question, it is hopefully dawning on you at this stage that the reason we may never get a full Piccadilly line service is not down to the 'little twerp' but that the government has singled out London as the one region where it was not prepared to cover the transport authorities shortfall in revenue during Covid which meant that investment projects had to be shelved.Quite nakedly this seems to have been a political gambit to try and give the Tory candidate a chance in the next Mayoral election. The latest polls are indicating that it hasn't worked. This means when the new Piccadilly line fleet is introduced it will be during Sadiq Khan's third term.
Jeremy Parkinson ● 549d