One year in

Last night we celebrated the end of our Fit for London programme - our exciting series of events which for the first time in the entire history of Transport for London involved every single employee.

Staff came in groups of 150 or so to Stratford International Station and into a purpose-built auditorium nside what will be the International Ticket Hall. Hosted by either Mike Brown, MD Rail & Underground or myself, we spent two hours outlining our prorities for the future, and most importantly listening to what all our staff had to say about the challenges today and tomorrow.

Staff reaction has been overwhelmingly positive - particularly as they came together for perhaps the first time ever in mixed groups and learned about achievements and challenges across the business - from each other. We have taken away a huge number of ideas and issues to help us deliver our services aganst a challenging financial backdrop in the future.

After each event everyone had a tour of the Olympic Park aboard a fleet of double-deck buses from First each with a guide on board. The Olympics, now less than a 100 days away of course, demonstrates first hand just what we can do when we work collaboratively and with a clear objective.

By co-incidence it was also the occasion of the completion of my first year at TfL - a year which has raced past and which has been full of challenges. It was therefore a fitting opportunity to thank all of my team for all their hard work this past year.

The next year looks no less exciting - we have a Mayoral election, the Olympic Games, and continued growing demand for all our services against a rising population of London - another 1.25million people coming here over the next 20 years. That's roughly adding the population of Birmingham to London.

So thank you to everyone who has contributed to all our successes this year and in anticipation of the next one, as we roll up our corporate sleeves and deliver a fantastic London 2012 Olympic Games.

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