Transport for London has sucked up yet another aspect of our city's diverse public transport system today, offering a cool £98 million to acquire Tramlink the company that currently runs South London's trams.
The trams will be run by TfL's London Rail Directorate and as with the reclamation of the 'loony line' by London Overground, once the deal has gone through, initial efforts will be focused on sprucing up the network (LO stations are now attractively orange edged) and there's a pledge to increase the frequency of service to meet growing passenger demand (last year Tramlink carried 25 million passengers) - vitally, without increasing fares.
As an aside, "grumpy of North London" tells us that we'd quite like more frequency during rush hour for London Overground please - ever tried getting on a Westbound train at Canonbury between 8-9am, Eh? Kuh.
Anyway, this brings TfL one step closer to being in a position to more effectively control and plan for an integrated and efficient public transport system serving all 33 boroughs of our city especially with Tramlink extensions in the ether all over the shop.
But, finally, to address the most important issue for Londoners, will the Tramlink remain a bumpy green extension to the District Line on the tube map, now it's being fully welcomed into the TfL fold?
Tram shot courtesy of yisris' Flickrstream.
