Queen’s funeral cost Transport for London almost £9m – with £1.6m spent on road adaptions or sprucing city up

The Queen’s funeral cost Transport for London (TfL) almost £9 million, NationalWorld can exclusively reveal – with £1.6 million spent on sprucing up road and bus networks or adapting streets for ceremonial events.

On Thursday (2 March) we revealed how the London Fire Brigade estimated its royal funeral costs had come in at £1 million. While this included salary and overtime payments incurred because of the extra bank holiday, it also included hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on additional operational activities, including fire safety inspections and looking after people queuing to see the Queen lying in state.

Now a Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by NationalWorld has revealed how TfL also faced a catalogue of expenses during the mourning period and funeral preparations, including a range of beautification exercises such as graffiti removal, repairs of “minor defects” and painting.

The total cost to TfL of so-called Operation London Bridge was £8.7 million. While some of this was recouped through increased ticket sales, TfL was still left dipping into its reserves. Much of the cost was due to the extra bank holiday, with £5.6 million going to contracted bus operators to provide a normal weekday service on the day of the funeral.

But the data also indicates a sum of £1.6 million was spent on management of the roads and bus network. TfL outlined 11 activities that contributed towards this cost – seven of which were concerned with improving the appearance of the network. This consisted of graffiti removal, extra bus station cleaning, fixing bus shelter defects, cleaning, painting, rectifying minor defects, and waste removal.

“Hotel accommodation” was listed as an eighth activity, although other hotel costs cited elsewhere in the FOI response suggest this is likely only to have been in the range of thousands of pounds. The rest of the £1.6 million total went on removing then reinstating traffic signals, traffic management, and welfare facilities.

‘Charles should cover the cost himself’

The figures have been condemned by anti-monarchy campaign group Republic, which says the full cost of both the Queen’s funeral and the upcoming coronation of King Charles should be borne by the Royal Family rather than the taxpayer.

Chief executive officer Graham Smith pointed to the assistance provided to Prince Andrew during expensive legal proceedings in recent years – besides helping with his legal fees, The Telegraph reported that the late Queen also helped pay a multi-million pound settlement to Virginia Giuffre, the woman who had accused him of sexual assault  – as evidence the royals were capable of covering the expense of their events.

"If Charles wants a parade through London he should cover the cost himself," Mr Smith said. "Surely they can find £8 million to ensure London’s public transport isn’t hit with another huge bill.”

A spokesperson for TfL said “much” of the £1.6 million figure spent on the bus and road networks was due to extra costs incurred “in keeping the road and transport network running safely and effectively through our 24-hour control centre, as well as costs incurred in adapting the road network to allow the ceremonial events to take place, such as removing and reinstating traffic signals”.

The spokesperson could not state what proportion went on managing the road network as opposed to beautification. Extra cleaning and waste removal was required due to the number of people visiting central London, they said, adding: “Any expenditure on fixing problems on the roads and at bus shelters continues to benefit people using London’s transport network.”

Will the Department for Transport pay?

According to the FOI response, TfL is “in discussions” with the Department for Transport (DfT) to recover some of its funeral-related operational costs. So far, these costs have been covered using TfL’s financial reserves, and from increased ticket sales during the mourning period.

NationalWorld asked the DfT if it would be covering any of TfL’s costs. It told us transport matters in London are devolved to the mayor, and that the funding settlement they agreed last August provided TfL with just under £1.2 billion until the end of March 2024.

“TfL has been hit by a funding crisis in recent years, and has seen a massive reduction in bus services since 2016,” said Mr Smith. “While Londoners are struggling with escalating costs and reduced public services, TfL is being hit with a multi-million pound bill for the Queen’s funeral – a bill that could easily be paid by Charles.”

Of the costs incurred by TfL, Carl Eddleston, director of network management and resilience, said: “London’s transport network played a vital role during last year’s state funeral for Her Majesty The Queen, enabling ceremonial events to take place safely and allowing Londoners and visitors to pay their respects.

“This was a huge task – with many hundreds of thousands of people coming to central London, many of whom were not familiar with our services and needed extra assistance.”