Transport For London Case Study: Transport For London

Transport for London (TfL) aims to keep London moving and to continuously improve the standard of living in the city. The constant growth in population however is making this aim increasingly challenging. It is crucial for Transport for London to continue to improve their service if the city’s success is to continue. (Transport for London, 2015)
In 2014 TfL identified their main priorities for the foreseeable future, safety and reliability, maximising capacity from the existing network and meeting the growing expectations of customers. (Transport for London, 2014) Having recognised these goals, it was up to the management to make many important decisions in regards to the changes they would have to make to achieve these goals. A great amount
The decision that has to be made by the management of TfL, is to plan where in their organisation the money will be invested. Within an investment plan it was decided that over a billion pounds would be invested into the idea of the ‘New Tube for London’.
Role of the actors:
Within this new plan TfL’s business analysts and managers are overlooking the workings on the plan, making sure it is all running smoothly and the engineers are following the plans laid out by managerial staff. It is the role of the floor staff, for example station supervisors, to ensure that whilst the engineers and managers are working on these changes, that the changes are having little or no impact on the running of the underground system.
Influence of Information Systems:
All of the actors within this organisation are now relying on information systems in some way. Business analysts and the management teams are relying on data to prove that such a change is necessary. Being able to search through an organisation’s data is a key aspect to making decisions in regards to change. Without knowing, for example, how many people are using the tube service, how could TfL justify spending over a billion pounds on the service? With thanks to their Oyster card and ticketing systems TfL know exactly how many people are using their and at what times. In regards to their first priority which was safety and reliability they store
Increasing reliability and capacity were also outlined in the organisation’s aims. “These trains will provide real time information on the service to customers” (Transport for London, 2014), with thanks to an information system called Trapeze. Meeting the growing expectations of customers. Therefore not only are information systems enabling TfL to make decisions but they are helping customers to make decisions.
Again meeting the expectations of customers, the new tubes are to be air cooled to improve customer comfort (Transport for London, 2014). Finally to meet their safety goals “modern platform edge door technology which has already been introduced on the Jubilee Line will be progressively developed” (Transport for London,2014)
Group state of knowledge:
Having researched the topic of change and development, we, as a team, learnt a lot about information systems (IS) enabled decision making. Being given the chance to research the topic of IS enabled decision making ourselves in a practical manner helped us greatly to understand what IS enabled decision making