Transport for London yesterday admitted it could afford Sadiq Khan’s four-year fares freeze without damaging investment in the capital’s transport infrastructure.
The transport body claimed the pledge would cost £640mn - substantially lower than the £1.9bn figure during the election campaign — and could be funded by a major cost-cutting programme. 
This would include organisational restructuring, cuts to agency staff and a recruitment freeze, as well as a freeze on the pay of 70 senior staff and cuts to free travel perks for the families of high earners.
TfL chief Mike Brown confirmed the modernisation of the network, including Tube upgrades, Crossrail 2 and more investment in cycling and the road network, would go ahead as planned. 
However, the announcement raised questions over whether Khan had kept his pledge to deliver a freeze for all fares, as it emerged only single and pay as you go fares would be covered. 
Commuters who use daily or weekly travelcards or contactless caps would still face fares hikes as they involved services outside the TfL network. The government previously paid the difference but is unlikely to do so this time. 
The Labour mayor’s fares freeze pledge became a key battleground of the mayoral race with the Tories claiming it risked crippling TfL’s £2bn infrastructure programme, with a knock-on impact on house-building.
Brown publicly defended the £1.9bn figure, angering many in the Labour team and resulting in a head-to-head confrontation with Assembly member Val Shawcross, now Khan’s deputy mayor for transport. 
The new mayor had claimed the move would cost £450mn over four years, but City Hall yesterday admitted the £640mn figure was an estimate as the actual cost would depend on inflation and passenger numbers. 
TfL’s original £1.9bn figure had differed so starkly from Labour’s because they used different inflation measures, it covered five rather than four years, passenger growth had been lower than forecast, and it included all fares at the request of Labour. 
Khan set out plans for a review including better procurement, merging engineering and IT departments and dumping unproductive IT projects. 
There will be a freeze on recruitment for all but the most essential roles and cuts to TfL’s 3,000 agency contractors, with a reduction of over 100 IT workers alone saving around £2mn.
Brown, who it emerged on Tuesday was paid £438,147 last year, including a basic salary of £356,409, announced that the basic pay of TfL’s 70 most senior staff would be frozen for the four-year term. Bonuses could still go up. 
Khan will review any future TfL appointments over £100,000 a year — currently over 400 employees — and has ordered a review of free travel for family and friends of these big earners.