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Transport for London

London Underground

The Tube roundel London Underground exists to serve one of the greatest cities in the world.

The Mayor's vision defines London as a pre-eminent financial centre, a meeting place of diverse cultures, a vibrant destination for national and international visitors, a growing and developing metropolis and, of course, the host city for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Our vision, therefore, is nothing less than to be a world-class Tube for a world-class city. This is a realistic and achievable goal - and one that London cannot afford for us to fail to achieve. Our strategy sets out the way in which we aim to achieve this:

Our strategy

The travelling public use the Underground because it is fast, convenient and saves time. Fundamentally, the train service must be reliable. This means having assets that consistently perform well, having staff correctly trained to support a reliable train service, and having the ability to recover swiftly from delays when they do occur.

The historic under-investment in the Tube is well-documented. It has left a legacy of unreliable and obsolete assets, which means our first challenge is to deliver a safe service day-in, day-out despite the state of the assets.

Our second challenge is to overcome this legacy through our investment programme, and, in doing so, build capacity to meet the 25 per cent increase in demand expected over the next 15 years. This brings a third challenge: maintaining customer service during the biggest rebuilding programme the Tube has ever seen.

Reliability may be the foundation but reliability and safety alone will not make us world class. Our customers use the Underground because it is fast and convenient, but our surveys consistently show that the quality of the travelling time is also important to them.


Taking care of customers has been part of the Underground's mission since the beginning. It is evident in the iconic design of our stations, in Harry Beck`s Tube Map and in the Johnston typeface, but it is also evident in the way we operate. We believe in visible and helpful staff, high-quality information and security systems, and in investing to make the Underground network more open and accessible for all.

London was the first world city to boast a metro system. At the dawn of the 21st century, London deserves a world-class transport system to meet the expectations of Londoners.

Find out how we are transforming the Tube

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