• Question by: Graham Tope
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

I think the real concerns of the South London partnership are not so much what's in the London Plan as what is not in the London Plan. Whilst extending Tramlink to Sutton will be very welcome, would the Mayor agree that that is by no means the only solution to the pressing need to improve orbital travel around South London. Can he give us a bit more reason for hope than he has so far? Surely it does not have to depend on the failure of Crossrail, which we all want to see succeed. What is the answer to orbital...

• Question by: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

There has been real concern about the cost of the Crossrail scheme - obviously no one is against Crossrail in principle - and we are talking about soaking up a huge sum of money and putting many eggs in one basket, and that is the concern of the ALG as well when they came to the scrutiny on the London Plan. How would you answer that: that if by putting Crossrail as your number one transport infrastructure priority, that is potentially taking away money from a whole range of other schemes which, at a local level, could have a far...

• 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...

• 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

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

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: Darren Johnson
• Meeting date: 16 October 2002

On consultation, the fact that most of the infrastructure for Orbirail is in place - it would be a very cheap and efficient scheme to implement - it could give you an easy time as Mayor in terms of the consultation process on that. You would be unlikely to have rooms of rabid car drivers attacking your plans.

• Question by: Roger Evans
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

That is very pleasing particularly given the comments that you made earlier on about the implications of PPP for the future of service on the Central Line which this spur of Crossrail is designed to supplement and reduce overcrowding between Liverpool Street and Stratford. I wonder, could you just make it absolutely clear to us what the implications are for the Central Line and how this part of Crossrail will help to improve that service from East London?

• Question by: Elizabeth Howlett
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

It doesn't look so far as if it is going to go through Wandsworth, but there was an agreement during your GLC tenure that perhaps there could be a spur going into Battersea. Now what chance of that?

• Question by: John Biggs
• Meeting date: 13 March 2002

I very much welcome what you are saying about the Docklands railway. Can I add to that that the Royal Docks option would probably help Barking and Dagenham to a far greater extent than going straight south of the river, but in no way am I suggesting that the south of the river option should be traded for one north of the river. I accept the arguments for that, but are you prepared to keep the door open for something else which may not be full-blown Crossrail, but which is a heavy rail improvement into the Barking and Dagenham area...