Ken Livingstone has pledged to put the environment at the heart of his transport plans, which he admits is the biggest challenge facing London's mayor over the next four years.

Launching his manifesto on Monday, Mr Livingstone acknowledged the huge job facing him in the form of a £16bn cross-London Crossrail project and a £1bn per year Tube modernisation.

He warned that if these very large projects went wrong they would be both financial as well as transport disasters for London.

"If schemes like Crossrail, the bringing of local rail services under London's control with London Overground, Tube modernisation and the management of our buses go wrong they are so large they will create not only a transport but a financial disaster for London with huge rises in fares and business rates. This therefore matters to every Londoner," he said.

There were also pledges to introduce a new fleet of hybrid powered buses, payment by mobile phone for Oyster cards, minute-by-minute bus information technology as well as fares concessions for older Londoners and students.

He also reaffirmed plans for a £500m cycle superhighway'. A dozen "cycling corridors" will, he proposes, be put in place over the next decade with plans for a central London bike hire scheme.

"I will keep free travel for children, defend the Freedom Pass and extend it so that it can be used before 9am and enhance the student discount to Oyster One Day Travelcards," Livingstone said.

"We will make getting around London more hassle free with a system of automatic debiting for the congestion charge, avoiding fines for simply forgetting to pay, as well as new technology to allow Oyster Pay As You Go top-up via mobile phones."

Mr Livingstone, who is battling for a third term in the hot seat, said the environment and transport would go hand in hand.

He said: "London's transport policies will begin to be even more integrated with environmental policies and the most important long term issue confronting the world - climate change."

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