New Transport for London chief optimistic despite threat of cuts

Mike Brown hopes Osborne’s northern powerhouse – and the funding it will require – will not eave the capital out in the coldThe man in charge of London’s transport is out of town. Specifically, he’s in an engineering workshop on a Manchester industrial estate, eyeing a 200kg piece of cast iron destined to line the edge of a Crossrail tunnel. This, says Mike Brown, the new commissioner, is where investment in the capital goes – a point he is especially keen to