TfL expenses claims fall as new boss forgoes Hendy’s taxpayer-funded taxis and meals

The departure of Sir Peter Hendy as London’s transport commissioner has coincided with a dramatic fall in the expenses claimed by Transport for London’s top managers.

Sir Peter, who left TfL in June to take up the chairmanship of Network Rail, regularly topped the agency’s expenses disclosure with claims for taxis and lavish meals at London’s exclusive Groucho members-only club.

In his final quarter helming the organisation Hendy’s £1,100 expenses bill included more than £600 in taxi trips.

Total claims for the period, including claims by other Chief Officers, came to £1,785.98.

The agency has always defended Sir Peter’s spending saying he was: “overseeing the delivery of a ten-year multi-billion pound budget to manage transport in London, and also deliver Crossrail and the upgrade of the Tube and there are occasions when his full schedule and late hours necessitate the use of taxis (which, of course, TfL licenses).”

However it seems that successor Mike Brown has managed to discharge his first quarter in charge without aping Hendy’s reliance on cabs to meet his diary commitments.

Brown’s total claims for the first six months of the current financial year amount to just £155.96 for costs incurred as part of an official visit to Moscow while still in charge of the Tube.

In the quarter since his elevation to the commissionership, Mr Brown has made no expenses claims.

Total claims for the period came to £1,298.88, around a quarter of which was incurred by Leon Daniels, head of surface transport, when he attended a symposium related to his portfolio in the USA.