London mayoral election: ‘Transport is definitely the key legacy area for Sadiq Khan’

When Sadiq Khan published his last mayoral manifesto, his paramount concern was restoring Transport for London’s Covid-crippled finances. Now TfL is about to post a £162 million annual “operating surplus” and its executives are waiting eagerly to see if they have done enough to earn themselves bonuses (they will find out later this month, when TfL’s performance is measured against a series of “scorecard” targets).

It’s a far cry from the situation in 2021. Mr Khan entered that year’s mayoral elections — delayed a year by the pandemic — with TfL surviving day-to-day thanks to government bailouts that ended up totalling more than £6 billion.

But while the capital’s public transport body is no longer on life-support, it still has the capacity to cause the Mayor headaches. The problems on the Central line are likely to be repeated on other lines where TfL cannot afford to replace the trains, such as the Bakerloo, Northern and Jubilee.

And despite finding £30 million to avert New Year strikes, union walkouts remain a worry. Only last week was a strike, which would have caused chaos on the