At first glance, Every Journey Matters might appear daunting. It runs to 438 pages plus appendices. That won’t deter those with a specialist interest in the history of Transport for London. But neither should it put off Londoners or others curious about how London’s transport system has evolved and been delivered since the return of city government 25 years ago.
The author of this recent publication is Sam Mullins, the former director of Covent Garden’s London Transport Museum, where many a child (and, let’s be honest, many an adult too) has departed wide-eyed after encountering exhibits of actual Tube trains and buses that, then viewed close-up, can seem even larger than life. Mullins adopts a curator’s approach to his book, combining chronology with thematic chapters. The result is a great success.
By drawing expertly upon hours of interviews with pivotal figures, he brings to life events and decisions that reflect a quarter of a century of transport progress along with times of tumult and tragedy. As he puts it, the book provided an opportunity “for the movers and shakers of London’s transport to tell me their story and to tell it while it is fresh in their memories”.
The result is a rich mix of reflections and perspectives from those who were on the front line (and often below the line) at TfL, City Hall and central government. These are combined with expert academic observations to create an accessible and informative narrative with read-across into how decisions in government get made more generally.
At the same time, in parts, it reads like a political thriller. For example, in the first few chapters Mullins deals with the excitement of the return of city-wide government to London. Even some Whitehall politicians and civil servants, often resistant to sharing power, were determined to ensure the success of London’s nascent, new devolved administration. As one official put it, she and her colleagues “were reinventing the governance of the city that I lived in and loved”. The advent of a powerful directly elected Mayor and a (less powerful) London Assembly created, by British standards, novel democratic structures to which TfL would report, following years of national government control.
Mullins brings to life the way big early decisions were made by the first Mayor, Ken Livingstone, and his stakhanovite advisors about matters such as who to appoint to lead TfL, which was formed from 14 different organisations. An incumbent senior civil servant with “barrow-boy” qualities was replaced by a “terribly expensive” ex-CIA operative, Bob Kiley, who brought with him a cohort of imported North American executives.
We learn about how this new TfL leadership got to grips with delivering far-reaching policies, such as congestion charging (a remarkably brave political move), the revolution of the Oyster card system and the renaissance of London buses. We are provided with insights into how these things got done and the battles that had to be fought along the way. As one senior executive puts it, “They [the Americans] are coming in a different way, they’re bringing a different experience and they’re challenging things”.
The biggest fight with the government was over the ill-fated London Underground public-private partnership (expertly detailed in Professor Stephen Glaister’s recent publication) which ended ultimately in victory for TfL under the next Mayor, Boris Johnson. This mother of all PPPs with its “immensely cumbersome” contracts is portrayed by Mullins as a jumbled, unloved project foisted upon Livingstone. We are left in no doubt that this was a policy albatross for central government and a cause celebre for “Red Ken” and Kiley.
But it was also a huge distraction for TfL managers trying to get on with the day job. Eventually, the government allowed TfL to put in place finance for a major ten-year investment programme for the Underground and other transport infrastructure. Combined with reinvigorated leadership, this heralded something of a golden age.
Investment was the dividend of bold policy choices made by TfL. Amongst these, congestion charging is rightly singled out by Mullins. Against expectations, this controversial and politically risky IT project was delivered with breakneck speed on time and led to significant reductions in central London congestion. As one TfL leader recalls, “The whole of the British media and, I think, most politicians, bar Ken, thought it would fail.” The success of the C-Charge helped to create a foundation for Livingstone’s re-election and London, in 2005, being awarded the 2012 Olympic Games. This was perhaps the high point of Livingstone’s mayoralty (though it was followed, the very next day, by the nadir of the 7/7 bombings).
The gargantuan task of competing for and then preparing for delivery of the Olympics (ironically, largely under Johnson) was a remarkable achievement for TfL. It confounded the reputation of transport in London for being forever congested. Moreover, the Games also provided a means to help secure further long-lasting improvements to London’s infrastructure, as well as the regeneration of large parts of the east of the city.
Mullins reveals that Johnson chose to stick with TfL’s leadership, including Commissioner Peter Hendy, following his first election victory in 2008, but that it was a close-run thing. At City Hall, “Transition was very, very difficult…because basically Boris didn’t have a clue”. At TfL, Mullins records, the Commissioner and his team, “…were treated with mistrust…you must be Ken’s person, mustn’t you, because you’ve got on with him.”
TfL dutifully went on to deliver, among other things, cycle super-highways, the “Boris bikes” cycle hire scheme and the “Boris bus”, promoted as a successor to the phased-out vintage Routemaster). As with projects pursued under Livingstone, these formed a more creative – some might say controversial – set of initiatives than could ever have been expected from central government.
With the election and subsequent re-elections of Labour’s Sadiq Khan, Mullins guides us through further transport and urban challenges that TfL has had to grapple with. These have included the implementation and enlargements of the Ultra-Low Emission Zone, the introduction of many more low traffic neighbourhoods, the advent of Uber and what Mullins calls the biggest test – managing transport services during Covid.
As with the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings, tough choices had to be made by TfL’s leaders involving weighing up very human costs and benefits that would affect their own staff and Londoners as a whole. “TfL was obliged overnight to turn from promoting the use of public transport to dissuading Londoners from travelling at all,” Mullins writes. At the same time, it had to keep the network running to allow NHS workers to commute. The damage from Covid was not limited to people. TfL’s finances were put under enormous strain, not least because the organisation became a political football. The deputy mayor for transport of the time recalls being “really genuinely worried about the existence of TfL”.
The book ends with explorations of what might have happened if TfL had not been invented and what the future might hold. There are grounds for optimism. As the book’s Afterword concludes, “The London model has proved to be a powerful force for the city’s day-to-day operation and long-term sustainability”. But there are risks ahead. Perhaps the most insidious is underinvestment in vital but politically “unsexy” transport assets that will only start to fail years from now.
Mullins’s highly readable and informative book will be enjoyed by anyone with an in interest in how London works and should be considered essential reading for Whitehall civil servants.Who knows, it just might help them understand a little better how, in the real world, successful public service delivery gets done.
Follow Alexander Jan on X/Twitter. Sam Mullins’s Every Journey Matters is available from the London Transport Museum shop and elsewhere.
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