[zaroth]

Aside from the ~£30b raised in fuel taxes, there's also the ~£6b raised in vehicle excise taxes.

Both of those revenue streams go into a government general fund and are not allocated specifically for road maintenance, because they collect about 3x what is actually spent on highway & road infrastructure each year. [1]

In short, the roads & highways are massively profitable.

London's buses however, lose nearly ~£1b a year, which tanks the entire public transportation budget, and more than offsets the profit generated by the Underground.

[1] - https://www.racfoundation.org/data/road-user-taxation-highwa...

[bmsleight_]

"revenue streams go into a government general fund" Yes but not to TfL, who has to fund this via Tube income.

[zaroth]

TfL actually received ~£3b in subsidies in 2018. That's compared to total gross income from the LU of £2,799m.

> The total of resource and capital grants receivable by TfL in 2018/19 amounted to £3,016m (2017/18 £2,477m). [1]

Total expenditure on roads of £539m, minus Congestion charges of £230m, means that subsidies received by TfL (covered by fuel duty & VED revenues) exceeded TfL road maintenance costs by £2,707m.

The LU does not subsidize the roads. It's actually the other way around. The net-subsidy (a.k.a government's net loss) on the LU is calculated at 9.7p per person-km, compared to a net-taxation (a.k.a government's net income) of 3.8p per person-km for driving.

[1] - http://content.tfl.gov.uk/tfl-annual-report-and-statement-of... (See Page 126)