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• Reference: 2002/0075-1
• Question by: Victor Anderson
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

Is the Chair of TfL still committed to Orbirail? .

• Question by: Victor Anderson
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

That is an encouraging answer. During the first six months of the GLA, when you had your policy commissions, I went to an interesting meeting about what's become the draft London Plan, where Professor Peter Hall and Nicky Gavron spoke about Orbirail and the idea that this would be a key part of your Spatial Development Strategy, that you would have an orbital rail route joining up inner-city areas, and then you would have interchanges between that route and the radial routes coming out from Central London. The phrase that was used was `the city of interchange" because London was...

• Question by: Victor Anderson
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

It's proceeding but it doesn't seem to have the prominence in the draft London Plan that other transport schemes have. Orbirail doesn't appear on the London diagram in the draft London Plan; there's a list of major transport schemes with their timing and it doesn't appear on that; in the Options Appraisal document for the Plan, it's not listed amongst the major projects. It's not up there with Crossrail and Thameslink 2000; it is excluded from those even though it looked like the most important of the schemes that the Plan was going to move on.

• Question by: Victor Anderson
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

How do you think Orbirail compares for cost effectiveness with the other transport infrastructure schemes that you've got? Crossrail is estimated to cost between £6-£10 billion, whereas Orbirail, if you already have the East London Line extension, is only supposed to cost something like 3% of that amount. In cost effectiveness terms, Orbirail ought to be the top of your list.

• Question by: Victor Anderson
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

Doesn't that make it more important that you put it at the top of your list because, surely, your criteria should be different to the Treasury's? Orbirail is going to benefit people in London, particularly in inner-city areas, whereas Crossrail is largely about people getting from Heathrow Airport to the City. There are far less stops for people in London on the Crossrail plans than there will be on the Orbirail plans. The idea of measuring the benefits of a transport scheme through productivity, is biased against poorer people who are going to earn lower incomes. The Treasury's figures are...