London rail users are getting a sixth of the public subsidy that passengers benefit from in other regions, a transport minister said today.
Baroness Kramer said the per-passenger-mile subsidy is about 31p for the rail network outside London compared with less than 5p in the capital.
She defended funding for Crossrail, Tube upgrades and Thameslink after the Commons transport committee called for “inequality” between funding for transport projects in London and the regions to be addressed.
The committee’s Labour chairman, Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman said: “It is inevitable the capital city will have more spending but this disparity is too high and it is time that there was more investment in the regions of the country.”
A report by the committee, which has more MPs representing Lincolnshire than London, highlighted government figures showing that in 2012/13, estimated spending per head on transport in the capital was £545 compared with an average of £216 in other regions.
Baroness Kramer, a former Lib-Dem MP for Richmond Park, accepted that more was spent on transport infrastructure in London but said the figures were skewed by the huge investment in Crossrail.
She said it was a “myth” that the capital got preferential treatment, adding: “If you look at London, the dependence on public transport is so high and, of course, as well as residents, you have got to add in commuters, you have got to add in visitors.”
But the committee urged ministers to use new funding arrangements for local projects to “ensure that there is a fairer allocation of funding”.
The MPs added: “No area across our nation should be second class in relation to the allocation of transport infrastructure funds.”
The Department for Transport said schemes such as the new High Speed rail link and the £600 million Northern Hub would “transform rail in the North”, which together with road investment “shows how committed we are to delivering improvements that benefit all areas of England”.
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