Transport For London - Organisation

Organisation

TfL is controlled by a board whose members are appointed by the Mayor of London, a position held by Boris Johnson who also chairs the Board. The Commissioner of Transport for London (Peter Hendy since 17 January 2006) reports to the Board and leads a management team with individual functional responsibilities.

The body is organised in three main directorates and corporate services, each with responsibility for different aspects and modes of transport. The three main directorates are:

• London Underground, responsible for running London's underground rail network, commonly known as the tube, and managing the provision of maintenance services by the private sector. This network is sub-divided into three service delivery units:
  • BCV: Bakerloo, Central, Victoria and Waterloo & City lines
  • JNP: Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines
  • SSR (Sub Surface Railway): Metropolitan, District, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines
• London Rail, responsible for:
  • Co-ordination with the operators that provide National Rail service within London.
  • London Overground, although actual operation is undertaken by a private sector franchisee and maintenance by Network Rail.
  • Docklands Light Railway: normally abbreviated DLR, this is the automatically driven light rail network in east London, although actual operation and maintenance is undertaken by a private sector franchisee.
  • London Trams, responsible for managing London's tram network, by contracting to private sector operators. At present the only tram system is Tramlink in south London, but others are proposed.
• Surface transport, consisting of:
  • London Buses, responsible for managing the red bus network throughout London, largely by contracting services to private sector bus operators. Incorporating CentreComm, London Buses Command & Control Centre, a 24 hour Emergency Control Centre based in Southwark.
  • London Dial-a-Ride, which provides paratransit services throughout London.
  • London River Services, responsible for licensing and coordinating passenger services on the River Thames within London.
  • London Streets, responsible for the management of London's strategic road network.
  • London congestion charge.
  • Public Carriage Office, responsible for licensing the famous black cabs and other private hire vehicles.
  • Victoria Coach Station, which owns and operates London's principal terminal for long distance bus and coach services.
  • Cycling Centre of Excellence, which promotes cycling in London and manages the contract with Serco for the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme
  • Walking, which promotes better pedestrian access.
  • London Road Safety Unit, which promotes safer roads through advertising and road safety measure.
  • Community Safety, Enforcement and Policing, responsible for tackling fare evasion on buses, delivering policing services that tackle crime and disorder on public transport in cooperation with the Metropolitan Police Service's Transport Operational Command Unit (TOCU) and the British Transport Police.
  • Traffic Enforcement, responsible for enforcing traffic and parking regulations on the red routes
  • Freight Unit, which is currently developing the "London Freight Plan" and is involved with setting up and supporting a number of Freight Quality Partnerships covering key areas of London.

Each of the main units has its own corporate identity, formed by differently-coloured versions of the standard roundel logo and adding appropriate lettering across the horizontal bar. The roundel rendered in blue without any lettering represents TfL as a whole (see Transport for London logo), as well as used in situations where lettering on the roundel is not possible (such as bus receipts, where a logo is a blank roundel with the name "London Buses" to the right). The same range of colours is also used extensively in publicity and on the TfL website.

TfL owns and operates the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, a museum that conserves and explains London's transport heritage. The museum also has an extensive depot, situated at Acton, that contains material impossible to display at the central London museum, including many additional road vehicles, trains, collections of signs and advertising materials. The depot has several open weekends each year. There are also occasional heritage train runs on the Metropolitan line.