I am completely signed up to the extension of the Bakerloo line beyond Elephant & Castle to Lewisham and even further but l also think we need to upgrade the whole of the Bakerloo line and fund the project with a levy on surrounding land of the extension, as its unlikely to attract grants from central government in the political climate for up to the next 10 years.
Having grown up the Bakerloo line beyond Paddington, l have seen the advantages of that extension done over 100 years ago but its clear parts of it have been falling to pieces including the train stock and the tracks. For example just over 4 years l lead a campaign to get the seats replaced given how poor the state of the seats were in comparison to other tube lines which was to the benefit of all travellers on the tube whether north or south of Paddington. Furthermore on the new extension, it would not make much sense to have very old stock of trains and tracks as it will undoubtedly affected the quality of the service along the line. So l would argue its in every ones interest to get the upgrade of the line down at the same time or certainly before as the extension takes us further into South London.
How to fund the extension is more critical, as it appears the priority for the new government on infrastructural investment will be for connecting up the Northern towns to the nearest cities. So we will have to show other means of funding the extension proposed.
Research by Jones Lang LaSalle commissioned by Transport for London in 2004 ( under Vice-Chair Dave Wetzel 2000-08 ) confirmed that the Jubilee Line extension created increased land values around the two stations studied. The extension cost £3.5bn to build and we now know that in the 10 years from 1992 to 2002 this project created an unearned uplift of more than £13bn for landowners in the vicinity of the 11 new stations.
As a result, TfL suggested to the Treasury and Department for Transport that a land levy be applied to the whole catchment area to fund the circa £16bn cost of Crossrail with no need for contributions from existing taxpayers.
It was only when this strategy was rejected that TfL suggested a much more modest scheme to raise £4.1bn with the introduction of a supplementary business rate on large commercial properties within the Greater London Area. Consequently, even before the trains are operating this has left landowners in the Crossrail catchment area from Shenfield to Reading with massive land value gains arising from taxpayers’ contributions from all over the country, many of whom will never travel on Crossrail.
Assuming the enhanced land value is greater than the build cost of the Bakerloo extension a land levy should be introduced and be applied to the whole of the catchment area of the new extension with no need for contributions from existing taxpayers.