On 12 May 2009, the mid-sized budget was selected allowing £1.2bn to be raised for spending on both the phase 3a and 3b metrolink extension along with various road and bus improvements. The proposed congestion charge, travel card, increased trains and most of the station improvements were dropped. The rejection also led to the demise of the Transport Innovation Fund grants offered to councils outside Greater London between 2005 and 2010 who implemented congestion charging to fund large-scale capital investment in transport. After the referendum other councils such as Durham and Cambridgeshire which had submitted bids and others in the process of submitting withdrew their applications. In March 2010 the government formally began the process of closing down the fund and the £9.5bn funding which had been allocated to potential recipients between 2008 and 2015 was reallocated to plug the Crossrail funding gap contrary to its original intention of financing transport investment outside the capital.