In the second episode of this four-part series, John Ware sets out the enormous capital cost - perhaps £50bn - of expanding London's public transport system to accommodate the additional forecast in growth of the capital's population over the next 20 years.
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ARE WE THERE YET?
Tuesday 13 March 2007
1930 GMT on BBC Two
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Because of record immigration from abroad and migration from within Britain, by 2026 the population of London is forecast to grow by perhaps 1.2m.
London's Mayor Ken Livingstone believes that unless there is a 40% expansion of rail, bus and tube services for commuters, London will cease to be the engine of Britain's economy and lose its status as one of the world's leading financial centres.
The Treasury is unlikely to fund most of this. The chancellor has allowed the mayor some limited "prudential" borrowing but that is only about 6% of what will eventually be needed.
The legacy of this Catch 22 approach between Treasury reluctance and lack of local authority financial freedom, is the capital's wheezing public transport system.
Ware argues that for London to avoid becoming a user-unfriendly city, there need to be new governing arrangements to give the mayor the same financial freedoms as the mayors of most other Western cities.
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