Transport for London
Categories: London Government | Intermodal transportation authorities | Transport in London | Public transport in the United Kingdom
Transport for London (TfL) is a government body responsible for the transport system throughout the City of London and Greater London in the United Kingdom. The role of TfL is to implement the transport strategy for, and to manage transport services across London.
Contents |
History
TfL replaced London Transport, from which it inherited most of the above functions and modes in 2000. The Underground rail system, (London Underground) was not transferred to TfL until 2003.
The Public Carriage Office was formerly part of the Metropolitan Police and Street Management was the responsibility of a mixture of national government and the London Boroughs; both functions were transferred to TfL in 2000.
A full history of the organisations before TfL can be found at London's transport history from 1933.
Management
TfL is controlled by a board whose members are appointed by the Mayor of London, a position currently held by Ken Livingstone, who also chairs the Board. The Commissioner of Transport for London, a position currently held by Robert Kiley, reports to the board and leads a management team with individual functional responsibilities.
Organisation
TfL is broken down into a set of functional units, each with responsibility for different aspects and modes of transport. These are:
- Docklands Light Railway. Normally abbreviated to DLR, this unit is responsible for the automatically driven light rail network in East London, although actual operation is undertaken by a private sector operator.
- London Buses. This unit is responsible for managing the red bus network throughout London, largely by sub-contracting services to private sector bus operators.
- London Dial-a-Ride. This unit provides paratransit services throughout London.
- London Rail. This unit is responsible for coordination with those operators of National Rail services which provide service within London.
- London River Services. This unit is responsible for licencing and coordinating passenger services on the River Thames within London.
- London Street Management. This unit is responsible for the management of London's strategic road network, and for the London congestion charge.
- London Trams. This unit is responsible for managing London's tram network, by sub-contracting to private sector operators. At present the only running tram system is Tramlink in south London, but others are proposed.
- London Underground - This unit is responsible for running London's underground rail network, commonly known as the Tube, and managing the provision of maintenance services by the private sector. The network is made up of the 12 lines, each with their own identification colour:
- Metropolitan (Purple)
- Piccadilly (Blue)
- District (Green)
- Victoria (Light Blue)
- East London (Orange)
- Central (Red)
- Circle (Yellow)
- Hammersmith & City (Pink)
- Waterloo & City (Turquoise)
- Jubilee (Grey)
- Northern (Black)
- Bakerloo (Brown)
- Public Carriage Office. This unit responsible for licensing the famous black cabs and other private hire vehicles.
- Victoria Coach Station. This unit owns and operates London's principal terminal for long distance bus and coach services.
Each of the above main units has its own corporate identity, formed by making slight colour changes to the standard roundel and adding appropriate lettering across the horizontal bar. Additionally the roundel rendered in blue without any lettering is used to represent TfL as a whole (See Transport for London logo). The same range of base colours is also used extensively in publicity, and on the TfL website.
Fares
Most of the transport modes which come under the control of Transport for London have their own charging and ticketing regimes. As an exception, buses and trams share one common fare and ticketing regime, and the DLR and the Underground another.
Superimposed on these mode specific ticketing regimes is the Travelcard system, which provides zonal tickets with validities from one day to one year, and also off-peak variants. These are accepted on the DLR, buses, railways, trams, the Underground and (to a limited extent) river services.
The Oyster card is a new contactless smart card system, which can be used in pre-pay mode (to pay individual fares) or to carry various Travelcards and other passes. It can be used by touching the card flat on the yellow card reader, found on all ticket gates where otherwise a paper ticket would be fed through, allowing the gate to open and the passenger to walk through.
Journey Planning
TfL has developed an electronic journey planner, which enables users to plan journeys by multiple modes in and around London. This is available on the web (see 'External links' below) and at kiosks and some payphones throughout London.
Congestion Charging
TfL is also responsible for managing the London Congestion Charge, a fee that is charged to motorists entering the Central London area and which is used to fund public transport developments in the city. (See 'External links' below)
Transport Museum
TfL also owns and operates London's Transport Museum in Covent Garden, a museum which conserves and explains London's transport heritage. It is closed for a redevelopment project, and is due to reopen in 2007. The museum also has an extensive depot, situated at Acton, which contains more material not normally on display; the depot has several open weekends each year.
See also
External links
| Transport for London |
|---|
|
Tube | DLR | Buses | Trams | Rail | Coaches | River | Taxi | Dial-a-Ride | Streets | Congestion Charge |