Thomas Ableman on LinkedIn: MY FAVOURITE 30 THINGS ABOUT TfL 7/30 DIAL-A-RIDE There is no law that… (2024)

MY FAVOURITE 30 THINGS ABOUT TfL 6/30 THE MAYOR’S TRANSPORT STRATEGY TARGETSQ: What is TfL here to do?A: 1. Achieve a mode share of journeys in London by public transport and active travel of 80% by 20412. Achieve zero deaths on the transport network in London by 2041I love the absolute clarity on TfL’s goals. There are very few organisations that have such clear, ambitious, long term targets. Even as I prepare to leave, I still find them inspiring and motivating. Here’s yesterday’s on the New Routemaster: https://lnkd.in/eEWixidQ———This post is part of a series of my favourite 30 things about TfL. I am publishing one a day on my last 30 working days at TfL. I am leaving on July 15th to set up a new business helping organisations get things done faster. Contact me if I can help you.

27

3 Comments

MY FAVOURITE 30 THINGS ABOUT TfL 5/30 THE NEW ROUTEMASTEROk, I expect this one to be controversial.There are purists, with whom I can sympathise, who will take the view that the Routemaster was unique, and a “new Routemaster” is an impossibility. But let us get beyond the name (and that it was built for conductors that aren’t there).What is true is that they are beautiful.They convey that sense of luxury (of a journey as an occasion) that is true of only the best public transport. People say good design costs nothing. That is financially inaccurate, but it is also ignores that design takes effort.The New Routemaster is an outstanding example of good design. A bus worth a selfie! Here’s Friday’s on Hidden London tours: https://lnkd.in/eaeShrsf———This post is part of a series of my favourite 30 things about TfL. I am publishing one a day on my last 30 working days at TfL. I am leaving on July 15th to set up a new business helping organisations get things done faster. Contact me if I can help you.

38

5 Comments

MY FAVOURITE 30 THINGS ABOUT TfL 4/30 HIDDEN LONDON TOURSImagine you’re in a dark space. A dark, confined space. It is silent. There is chip fat on the walls dating from the 1940s. This wall hasn’t been cleaned since they stopped using it as a kitchen during the war. There’s a tangle of corridors. Some were built when the station opened. Others were created by brick partitions used to make dormitories, board rooms, offices and a bedroom for Winston Churchill. The silence is broken by a rattling. It gets louder. The sound climaxes with a roar and the floor shakes. Beams of light penetrate the darkness through gaps in the wall. A flash of a brightly lit human face: a modern day commuter, incongruous in the gloom. Then the sound fades, silence returns and the real world feels more distant than the reality of memory. This was my experience of Down Street station and I recommend it to anyone. Here’s yesterday’s on the Elizabeth line: https://lnkd.in/e9r6k9Xj———This post is part of a series of my favourite 30 things about TfL. I am publishing one a day on my last 30 working days at TfL. I am leaving on July 15th to set up a new business helping organisations get things done faster. Contact me if I can help you.

33

5 Comments

MY FAVOURITE 30 THINGS ABOUT TfL 3/30 THE ELIZABETH LINEI was lucky enough to make it down there before you did. Unless you helped build it, of course. Back then, it was silent. Huge, empty, waiting, expectant. Now, 2 1/2 years on from this photo being taken, the joy is just how normal it is. The geography of London has changed. Whitechapel is forever three stops from Tottenham Court Road, the Excel exhibition centre is now part of the geography of central London, East has met West. But, travel on it today, and it is full of commuters, holidaymakers, shoppers and - last time I was on it at night - a particularly raucous and joyful hen party from Essex on their way to a night out in… Canary Wharf. Here’s yesterday’s on the DLR: https://lnkd.in/ezD76jNE——This post is part of a series of my favourite 30 things about TfL. I am publishing one a day on my last 30 working days at TfL. I am leaving on July 15th to set up a new business helping organisations get things done faster. Contact me if I can help you.

53

5 Comments

MY FAVOURITE 30 THINGS ABOUT TfL 2/30 THE VIEW OF THE ISLE OF DOGS FROM THE DLRI remember the first time I made this trip, aged six. Canary Wharf was a sea of mud, speckled with warehouses. Today it is a festival of modern architecture. One of the things I love about London is the variety: it barely seems possible that Seven Dials and Heron Quays are in the same city. The automated, elevated Docklands Light Railway is the perfect vantage point for the ongoing transformation of East London. *ding* - off we go!Here’s yesterday’s on Steps into Work: https://lnkd.in/e9U2D2HV———This post is part of a series of my favourite 30 things about TfL. I am publishing one a day on my last 30 working days at TfL. I am leaving on July 15th to set up a new business helping organisations get things done faster. Contact me if I can help you.

36

MY FAVOURITE 30 THINGS ABOUT TfL 1/30 STEPS INTO WORKA number of you were kind enough to tell me last year how much you enjoyed my series on “160 Things I Love About The Tube”.So, to mark my last 30 days at Transport for London, I’ve decided to do a daily post on my favourite 30 things about TfL.I’m starting with something most of you will not know exists.“Steps into Work” is an internship programme for people with neurodivergencies. It gives autistic and other neurodivergent young people the chance to experience a workplace and gain a qualification. So far, so good. But I imagine a lot of organisations might do something like this: as inclusion window-dressing for the CSR report. What genuinely made me start to well up was seeing the “graduation” event. TfL colleague Amrita Singh had done so much work to make the occasion feel special: mortar boards, cake, banners, a ceremony, the Commissioner. Having an autistic daughter, I know how much harder it can be to do things that many of us take for granted. By turning up to work each day, these young people had achieved something extraordinary and TfL was there to celebrate with them.

175

4 Comments

I don’t leave TfL just yet but today is my last team Awayday so seems the right moment for an Oscars-style thank you speech. Please indulge me!It is a cliche, but TfL people are genuinely the best in the business. I am privileged to have worked with them for the last three years.I am very proud to have worked with the inestimable Martin Taylor to create the first ever TfL Strategy. It’s a remarkable thing but despite having existed as an integrated authority for over 20 years, TfL never had a single business strategy covering everything. The wonderful Theo Chapple has led incredible work, culminating in the groundbreaking Innovation Collaboration Framework - and a series of fantastic projects with Google. I am proud to have contributed to cycle wayfinding globally. Becky Upfold and Chris Plummer have done incredible work to bring order from chaos in the dockless e-bike market. You will see the fruits of this in coming years. Another that will roll out after I’ve gone - but which I was particularly passionate about - is our case-making work on long term sustainable funding. TfL deserves better than hand-to-mouth funding deals. We’ve been marshalling arguments which you’ll start to see later this year. Please join in and amplify them!Claire Wiseman is typical of so many TfL people: deep, deep domain knowledge and detailed understanding of TfL. She’s been quietly preparing London for autonomous vehicles and mitigating risks in the AV Bill. Her work won’t generate a press release but is more important than much which will. This is even more true of the work of Peter Guard and the Strategic Problem Solving team. I wish more public bodies had similar teams. I’m proud to have led these diligent intelligent people who’ve been quietly tackling TfL’s knottiest problems. When their work is used (even announced), you’ll never see their names but Londoners experience the benefits of their work every day. The same is true of Kirsty Baker’s work on the Business Plan and Amanda Hopkins and Juliet Edmondson on benchmarking, the scorecard and Ops strategy: essential underpinnings for everything TfL does. TfL Consulting was a manifesto commitment of the Mayor but only last year did it become a profitable business under the leadership of Ben Johnson. Finally, the Open Innovation team - under Theo Haughton and predecessor Rikesh Shah - I can’t even begin to list everything they’ve worked on but this year’s projects alone are worth £millions to TfL’s bottom line.I’d like to thank Michael Hurwitz for handing on an innovation team in such fine fettle and, above all, Gareth Powell for the brave decision to recruit someone like me into an organisation like TfL. I’ve adored being part of one of the most successful public bodies on earth. It’s not well enough funded and it faced a series of body blows by the pandemic. I wish my boss Alex Williams and Commissioner Andy Lord every success in navigating the next few challenging years.

212

15 Comments

This wonderful document is TfL’s commitment an inclusive transport network. It can be hard to know what that means in practice. So let me give you an example. My 15-year-old daughter is autistic, visually impaired and suffers severe anxiety. She goes to school independently on the London Overground.One morning last week, I got a phone call from Higham’s Park station to say that my daughter was at the station and struggling badly. They took her into the office and looked after her.The school, which is around the corner, went and collected her. She was fine.As a result, this was almost an affirming experience: it confirms that she can travel independently, and even when it goes wrong, it is alright in the end. Which means she can continue to travel to school independently and gradually build her confidence. Remember, she is visually impaired and will never be able to drive: so confident independence on public transport is critical to a fulfilling life. This outcome was not guaranteed. It is what Equity in Motion is all about. It depends on a transport authority that cares (which, here in London, we have) and it depends on staff, on the day, being truly wonderful.Not everyone’s experience is so positive, which is why Equity in Motion exists. But the commitment is there. Above all, Trish Ashton, Rory O'Neill and Steve Best, please say thank you to Zel at Higham’s Park station for her actions. https://lnkd.in/ezR7YbEQ

174

14 Comments