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From the congestion charge to the Elizabeth line, Transport for London has transformed the way millions of Londoners travel round their city each day.
Now its achievements – and the challenges it has faced – have been detailed in the first “modern day” history of the first 25 years of TfL.
In his book, Every Journey Matters, Sam Mullins, emeritus director of London Transport Museum, offers readers a “ring-side seat” as he recounts what happened at all the critical moments in the capital since 2000, from the response to the 7/7 terror attacks in 2005 to the hosting of the 2012 Olympics.
He also outlines what he believes to be TfL’s greatest achievement – which is revealed to be not the Elizabeth line, but the transformation of the ticketing system, first with the Oyster card and then the advent of Contactless journeys.
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Sam Mullins: the former director of the London Transport Museum has written the definitive history of TfL’s first 25 years
London Transport Museum
Every Journey Matters: Sam Mullins details the first 25 years of TfL
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Mr Mullins interviewed former mayors Ken Livingstone (in 2019) and Boris Johnson for his book, plus many of the top executives to have worked at TfL.
“This was a chance to write an early history of a significant organisation while people’s memories were still pretty fresh,” he said in an interview with The Standard. “For lots of Londoners, it turns what they might have seen in the news headlines into history.”
The book had originally been planned to mark TfL’s 20th anniversary but was derailed by the pandemic. It got back on track and drew from interviews Mr Mullins conducted for the London Transport Museum’s “oral history” archives.
“I was an interested observer from the inside on what went on in TfL,” he said. “I’m trying to convey to the general reader what it was like to be around the table when the congestion charge was being discussed and people were asking: ‘Do we go for it or not?’; what it was like to be in the control room on 7/7, with the terrorist bombings on the Tube; what happened when the Oyster card and Contactless were launched.”
TfL came into existence alongside the London mayoralty in 2000 – though it was not until 2003 that London Underground became part of TfL.
Mr Mullins visited Mr Livingstone at his home in Cricklewood in December 2019, a few days after the General Election that saw his successor as mayor, Boris Johnson, returned as Prime Minister.
Ken Livingstone at his home in Cricklewood in 2018
Matt Writtle
“It was really important to have spoken to him,” Mr Mullins said. “It was great to be in the same room as him, to see that twinkle in his eye. Him as the first mayor was a really significant part of laying the TfL tramlines down.
“He demonstrated that, though the powers of the mayoralty on paper are relatively limited, its influence is extraordinary.
“The great thing about Ken was that, though he was a political mayor, he knew where he wanted to go. Part of that was a vision for transport as a civilising, enabling technology for London. It helped that he was a regular user – he used the Tube every day.”
The book tells of Mr Livingstone’s battle against the PPP (public private partnership) that the Labour government had set up to fund the Tube, and his determination to launch the congestion charge and the Oyster card in his first term – both of which he achieved.
He recruited Bob Kiley as the first TfL commissioner. Mr Kiley thought the PPP was “completely mad”, according to the book.
On one extraordinary occasion, Mr Kiley was invited to Chequers by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to discuss the PPP – and asked to take over negotiations with the two PPP firms on behalf of the Government.
The way we were: the Northern line at Bank station prior to the formation of TfL
Alamy Stock Photo
In the end, the maintenance and operation of all Tube lines was brought back in-house, with the PPP having wasted as much as £20bn-£30bn, the book says.
The Oyster card was launched in June 2003 and was followed by price capping in February 2005.
The name Oyster was proposed by Saatchi & Saatchi because of the “metaphorical implications of security and value”, the historical links to the Thames oyster beds and the idiom ‘your world is your oyster’”, Mr Mullins wrote.
Other shortlisted options were Amigo and Cube but Oyster became the favourite almost by a process of elimination.
Mr Livingstone’s transport legacy continued long after his departure from City Hall. In December 2012, TfL became the first transport organisation in the world to accept Contactless payments – including on all London buses.
Two years later, cash fares were no longer accepted on buses (saving £24m a year at the time, and equating to a £130m annual saving by 2023). In 2015, a total of 256 London Underground ticket offices were closed.
Mr Mullins described big projects such as the Elizabeth line as the “icing on the cake”.
But he said its real achievement is seen day after day, when millions of people are transported safety across the city -at the touch of a plastic smartcard.
He said: “The Elizabeth line is a stunner, without a doubt. But probably the greatest achievement was the introduction of the Oyster card and Contactless, and the way TfL uses them to understand customer behaviour.”
Shashi Verma, who, as TfL director of ticketing and fares, widened the scope of the Oyster card and introduced Contactless, told the author: “Gone are the queues for tickets, snaking out of stations often into the street.
“Gone are the bits of paper littering the system, the ticket touts willing to buy your used but still useful one-day Travelcards to sell on.
“Gone is the hassle of coins and change. The impact of Oyster has been transformational in the way people use transport. It remains the strongest symbol of the integrated transport system for which Transport for London was created.”
Its transformation, from the decrepit and crime-ridden Silverlink franchise operating on the North London line in early 2000s, “stands up there with Oyster” as TfL’s greatest innovation, according to former Tube managing director Tim O’Toole.
Prior to its takeover by TfL, Silverlink was regarded as one of the worst rail lines in the country. The Department for Transport regarded it as an “expensive, subsidy-hungry irrelevance that carried next to no-one.”
In 2006 it was announced that the Silverlink franchise would be broken up and transferred to TfL, while the East London Line would be moved out of the Underground.
The wining of the 2012 Olympics created the impetus to develop the Overground and extend the DLR.
Mr Livingstone launched the new Overground network at Hampstead Heath station in 2007. Posters described it as “London’s new train set”.
In 2010, the former East London Line was extended, via Dalston Junction and a new bridge over Shoreditch High Street, to Clapham Junction in 2010, using Marc Brunel’s Thames Tunnel that dates to 1843.
Further extensions followed to Crystal Palace, West Croydon and, in 2011, Highbury & Islington. In 2012 the “circle” around London was completed when Surrey Quays was connected with Clapham Junction.
Boris Johnson succeeded Mr Livingstone as mayor in 2008.
His first manifesto proposed a “21st century Routemaster” bus – plus conductors – and abolishing the western extension to the congestion charge zone, which happened in 2010.
In his first week he banned drinking alcohol on the Tube – a policy that, these days, is widely ignored, especially at weekends.
Mr Livingstone, in his only post-election conversation with the new mayor, advised him to keep Peter Hendy as TfL commissioner and Mr O’Toole as Tube managing director.
The new Routemaster – known as the New Bus for London, was built in Ballymena in Northern Ireland after a design competition attracted about 700 entries.
The last original Routemaster, the 159 from Marble Arch to Streatham, ran on December 9, 2005.
One opponent held up a placard of a Ken Livingstone soundbite from 2001: “Only some ghastly dehumanised moron would actually want to get rid of the Routemaster.”
Final journey: The 159 in December 2005 on the last trip by a Routemaster
Evening Standard
TfL executives though Mr Johnson’s plan for a new Routemaster to be “crazy”, and his desire for an open rear platform unsustainable on cost and health and safety grounds.
“In the age of the cashless bus and Oyster cards, the conductor had little to do other than guard the platform,” Mr Mullins writes.
But Mr Johnson wanted the new Routemaster to replace the “cyclist-killing bendy bus” – the unpopular articulated buses introduced by Mr Livingstone, which became a haven for fare evasion.
The new Routemaster entered service on February 22, 2012, on the 38 route from Clapton Pond to Victoria.
Boris bus: the new Routemaster or New Bus for London ordered by Boris Johnson as mayor
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But by that summer the buses became known as the Roastmasters because of the heat on the top deck, due to the absence of opening windows. After an Evening Standard front-page story, opening windows were retro-fitted.
There was no factual basis for Mr Johnson’s claim that bendy buses killed cyclists, but he became determined to axe the fleet after a “close shave” in 2004 as he cycled round one in Shaftesbury Avenue, the book says.
In 2010, Mr Johnson set aside £913m for a network of cycle superhighways, “Quietways” and three “Mini Holland” borough schemes in Waltham Forest, Enfield and Kingston.
Mr Mullins writes that Mr Johnson’s appointment of journalist Andrew Gilligan as his cycling commissioner, in his second term as mayor, “controversially delivered the brief far beyond what Johnson had envisaged, enraging the road lobby with works for cycle infrastructure in central London, notably on the Embankment”.
Blue is the colour: Boris Johnson introduced the first generation cycle superhighways
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He told The Standard that the resulting network of cycle superhighways were “clearly more elaborate than Boris had reckoned”.
“There was one meeting where they were discussing the Embankment, and Boris said: ‘Who’s bloody idea was this?’ The TfL guys all pointed to Andrew Gilligan.”
When Mr Johnson stood down as mayor in 2016, 52 per cent of Londoners thought he had done a “good job” and 29 per cent a “bad job”.
Mr Mullins concludes that the new Routemaster – which became known as the Boris bus – was a “worthy and innovative successor” to the Routemaster.
“The new Routemaster continues to stand out from the crowd and embellish the London street scene,” Mr Mullins writes.
These days, TfL aims to have all 8,500 buses in the capital’s bus fleet zero emission by 2030. It is examining whether the new Routemasters – which have a diesel hybrid engine – can be converted to battery power.
Sadiq Khan became mayor in 2016. Mr Mullins was unable to interview the current mayor but spoke to some of his aides.
Will Norman, who Sir Sadiq appointed as his walking and cycling commissioner in 2017, said Mr Gilligan had been “fearless” in his approach to improving cycling infrastructure: “If he wasn’t pissing someone off, he didn’t feel like he was doing his job properly, so that got stuff done”.
Mr Norman added: “The Embankment and Blackfriars [superhighways] were exceptionally bold statements of ambition and intent.”
7/7 terror attacks, London Olympics, Covid
Mr Mullins said that while TfL was undoubtedly a “big bureaucratic beast”, it has been at its best when forced to respond to major events – the 7/7 terror attacks, the 2012 London Olympics and the covid pandemic.
A total of 52 people were killed when Islamist suicide-bomber terrorists detonated bombs on two Circle line trains, at Aldgate and Edgware Road, on a Piccadilly line train between King’s Cross and Russell Square and on a No30 bus that had been diverted to Tavistock Square.
The bus network was restarted that night to help millions of Londoners get home. The Tube resumed the following day, with shuttle services up to the bomb sites.
Four weeks after the attacks, on August 3, the Piccadilly line resumed services through the tunnel from King’s Cross to Russell Square.
London Stands United: the Evening Standard’s message in response to the 7/7 terror attacks
Alamy Stock Photo
Mr Mullins said TfL had “managed to adjust to three different mayors who had different styles and visions for London”.
He said: “In the past, London Transport would fight like mad with the old GLC because they thought they knew better.
“When you look at the 25 years of achievement, it’s pretty astonishing. Going from what the transport experience was like in the 1990s – ticket machines, cash, paper tickets, printed timetables, having no idea when the next bus was coming – there has been a huge change.
“I think change would have been driven by the rise in digital anyway, but TfL was ahead of the curve in some respects.
“With the congestion charge and Contactless travel, TfL went out on a limb. They were doing things that no-one else had done before.”
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