What is Transport for London?

Transport for London (TfL) is the integrated body responsible for the capital's transport system. Its role is to implement the Mayor's Transport Strategy for London and manage the transport services across the capital for which the Mayor has responsibility.

TfL is accountable for both the planning and delivery of transport facilities, which enables it to take a truly integrated approach to how people, goods and services move around London.

TfL is directed by a management board whose Members are chosen for their understanding of transport matters and appointed by Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, who chairs the TfL Board.

What does TfL do?

TfL manages London's buses, the Underground, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) and London Trams. It also runs London River Services, Victoria Coach Station and London's Transport Museum.  TfL also manages a 580km network of main roads, all of London's 4,600 traffic lights and regulates taxi's and the private hire trade.

To ensure greater accessibility, TfL co-ordinates schemes for transport users with mobility impairments as well as running the Dial-a-Ride scheme. Considerable work is being undertaken to improve conditions for walkers, cyclists, drivers and freight and to implement proposals for reducing congestion on London's streets.

Ten facts about London Underground

1. Every Tube train travels the distance from London to Sydney (10,500 miles) seven times a year.

    

2. The Tube carries as many individual passengers a year as the population of Australia (19 million).

    

3. These passengers made 930 million trips in 1999 - the same as all the UK's other train operators put together. In 2000, the number of trips topped one billion.

    

4. During the three-hour morning peak, 34,000 people enter Victoria, London's busiest Tube station.

    

5. 150,000 people an hour enter the Tube system - enough to fill Wembley Stadium twice over.

    

6. The London Underground has been known as The Tube since 1890, when the first deep-level electric railway line was opened.

    

7. The Underground name first appeared on stations in 1908.

    

8. London Underground's world-famous logo, the roundel - a red circle crossed by a horizontal blue bar - was designed by calligrapher Edward Johnston and first appeared in 1913.

    

9. 408 escalators and 112 lifts keep passengers moving throughout the system. Waterloo station has the most escalators, with 25.

    

10. The Underground's busiest station is Victoria, with 76.5 million passengers a year.