Ex-mayor’s pledge for Tramlink

A WHOLE new future appears to await Croydon’s Tramlink system if Ken Livingstone is re-elected as Mayor of London.

Mr Livingstone, who will find out on September 23 whether he will be Labour’s Mayoral candidate in 2012, launched his transport strategy in Croydon on Tuesday.

And on the back of major commitments like keeping fares down, Mr Livingstone told the Advertiser the idea of expanding Tramlink remained high in his ambitions.

The extension to Crystal Palace, supported by Mr Livingstone while mayor, was the first transport scheme to get the chop when Boris Johnson took over the job.

Mr Livingstone said: “I am committed to putting the Crystal Palace link back and also reinstating the separate Camden link scheme, which would come down to Brixton.”

That, he said, has the potential to link up with a north-south Tramlink extension from Streatham, down through Norbury, Thornton Heath and Purley to Coulsdon.

He added that there was also value in making better use of under-utilised rail lines from West Croydon to Sutton.

Mr Livingstone said: “It is unfair that people in north London can turn up at a Tube station and get a train every three or four minutes, while in some areas of south London they have to put up with four, or sometimes just two, overland trains an hour.”