Transport schemes face axe

Major transport improvements in and around London could be scrapped because the Department of Transport plans to raise the bar for working out their social benefits, the former head of the Strategic Rail Authority reveals today.

Richard Bowker, who lost his £255,000-ayear job last year when Transport Secretary Alistair Darling reshuffled control of the industry, says Thameslink 2000 and the East London line extension - planned to serve the 2012 Olympics - could now both be under threat.

Whitehall's message to passengers, he adds, is "forget [our] doing anything meaningful outside the M25."

DfT civil servants, he tells today's issue of Rail Magazine, want to change the cost-benefit calculations for whether new projects go ahead. They feel analysts should aim for £2 of social and financial benefits for every £1 of taxpayers' money - as against £1.30 at present.

"If strictly enforced," Mr Bowker warns, "that would mean the end of virtually every enhancement project the SRA was looking at." These would include a new east-west rail line, " rebuilding Birmingham Street station, East London line, Thameslink 2000 and a whole swathe of smaller things; all gone."

Mr Bowker tells the magazine he would be "surprised" if ministers are aware of the plans as they would "severely limit" meeting new demands.

A DfT spokesman denied changes were being considered and said there were no rigid rules for cost-benefit analysis.