On 26 March 2015, outgoing London Mayor and current Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson issued Mayoral Decision MD1478. Based on a cost estimate only 50% likely to be correct, London agreed to fund a transport project, with no cost ceiling, that primarily benefitted a Conservative marginal seat outside of the capital. This is the story of the troubled Metropolitan Line Extension to Watford.
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TfL eyes digital innovation as funding salvation (Infrastructure Intel)
TfL commissioner Mike Brown has highlighted how digital innovation is the “salvation” for the capital’s transport network and has urged those working in the industry to come forward with ideas that will keep the TfL …
Continue readingTfL hopes tunnel WiFi will help fund transport system (Wired)
TfL planning document reveals the transport body’s hopes that all three plans — mobile coverage underground, the fibre network, and 5G support — would help fund the transport system: “Our expectation is that the commercial …
Continue readingFriday Reads – December 1, 2017
Welcome to Reconnections’ Friday Reads. This week’s lineup: • Visualising the daily pulse of the Tube (Tube Heartbeat) • TfL claims public transport users subsidise London’s roads (CityMetric) • Disused passenger tunnels to reopen at …
Continue readingTfL measuring ‘me-time’ on-board satisfaction (Research Live)
Transport for London (TfL) has undertaken a body of research to better understand how customers spend their time on journeys on the network. The findings highlight the rise of the ‘me-time’ commuter, and have helped …
Continue readingTfL offers open data expertise through new consulting arm (City AM)
Transport for London (TfL) has shed more light on the role of its consultancy arm in the works, saying today that it is exploring new commercial avenues through releasing open data. The transport body makes …
Continue readingTfL to sell travelers’ attention & WiFi data for £322m (BoingBoing)
Since late 2016, the Transport for London has been running a pilot scheme, providing wifi to passengers while logging and retaining all the wifi traffic coming in and out of its access points, compiling a …
Continue readingTfL Refuse to Issue Private Hire Operator Licence to Uber
TfL have confirmed that they will not be issuing a private hire operator licence to Uber. Their full press release is below. Uber’s current licence expires on 30 September. Uber have vowed to appeal the …
Continue readingUnderground Wifi Tracking – TfL’s Official Report (Gizmodo)
London Underground Wifi Tracking: Here’s Everything We Learned From TfL’s Official Report Earlier this year, Gizmodo UK scored ourselves a scoop, as we exclusively revealed some of the findings from last year’s wifi tracking trial, …
Continue readingLondon’s First Highway: Part 2 – The Surprising Success of River Buses
Over two millennia ago, at the furthest downstream location that a bridge could be built across the River Thames, London was born. Continuing our occasional series on the river’s relationship with transport in London, we …
Continue readingThe 2017 TfL Fare Changes: Perception and Reality
On 18 November 2016 the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, confirmed the TfL fares for 2017. As part of this he announced a four-year ‘fare freeze’ on all ‘TfL fares’ starting next year, meeting his …
Continue readingDon’t Fear the Beeper: Bus Hopper Tickets and the Future of Oyster
“Today is a landmark day for transport in London,” London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan said on 12 September 2016. “It wasn’t right that Londoners had to pay twice simply to change buses.” It is a deceptively …
Continue readingA New Typeface for the Underground: Johnston 100
London Underground’s hundred-year-old typeface is iconic. Designed by Edward Johnston in 1915, it almost singlehandedly revived the sans-serif. Yet after a century of evolution some of the things that originally made it special have gradually disappeared. We look at the typeface’s history and at TfL’s ambitious attempt to rediscover its soul.
Continue readingA Glimpse At The Transport Path Ahead
A TfL presentation delivered to Sadiq Khan, the newly elected Mayor of London, has surfaced online. It offers an insight into the transport announcements we can expect in the near future. It also indicates a …
Continue readingLondon’s First Highway: The Fall and Rise of River Buses
Over two millenia ago, at the furthest downstream location that a bridge could be built across the River Thames, London was born. In many ways the river is the very reason for London’s existence. The …
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