London Briefing: Transport for London (TfL) is the self-styled "integrated body responsible for the capital's transport system". At least, it would like to be.

Since it has no brief to manage any part of the extensive rail network (with the exception of the Docklands Light Railway) its claims to overall managerial control remain aspirational rather than accurate. Nevertheless, with responsibility for both buses and the underground system, the umbrella body does wield a lot of clout; its management of 580 km of main roads and all of London's 4,600 traffic lights undoubtedly helps to keep it busy.

Tfl employs 17,000 people and has a budget of £4.354 billion (€6,388 billion) - a serious business by anyone's standards. That it is run by Ken Livingstone, a hate-figure for most of the media, means that its successes mostly go unreported.

Londoners are often surprised by their own city, not least by the statistics associated with public transport. According to TfL, nearly 30 million journeys are made in Greater London every day, of which around nine million are on public transport.

Most people would guess that the majority of public transport users travel by the underground; not so, as 5.4 million bus journeys are made daily, some 80 per cent more than on the tube.

Buses have been at the heart of TfL's strategy to improve London's transport infrastructure. It would have liked to have placed more emphasis on the underground system but it has been stymied by central government (just one more reason why many Londoners loathe the Blair administration).

Over the last four years the number of people travelling each day by bus has risen by nearly two million. Bus use has not been as high since the 1960s, with passenger growth rates at levels last seen in 1945

Private operators have been a key part of the expansion of bus services, with the latest entrant into the market, Centra, bringing the total number of private bus companies to 20, with total bus revenues now around £1 billion a year.

Tfl reckons that 90 per cent of Londoners are now within 400 metres of a bus stop. Efficiency incentives feature prominently in the contracts of the private operators, with around 20 per cent of those agreements coming up for renewal on an annual basis.

Trams have not figured prominently in TfL's strategy, although a new line is now being planned for west London, ahead of which a detailed public consultation exercise is being conducted, which will conclude at the beginning of next month.

People can read about and respond to this exercise in one of 10 different languages - one reflection of just how comfortable London is with its cosmopolitan status. Individuals have responded in their thousands to TfL's request for comments.

At least 15 venues will see road shows explaining the details of the new tram service that is planned to take passengers from Uxbridge to Shepherds Bush in about an hour, taking in around 40 stops along the way.

All this consultation is a prelude to a full public enquiry, due to be held next year should the decision to proceed be taken.

The most controversial policy introduced by TfL has undoubtedly been the congestion charge on motorists entering central London during peak times. But that controversy is now largely a thing of the past. Forceful critics of the charge on motorists entering central London are now notable mostly for their silence.

I have written about the success of the congestion charge on previous occasions; perhaps the most significant development signifying the increasing acceptance of the charge has been the decision to press on with plans to extend the charging zone westwards, to encompass most of Kensington and Chelsea. That decision was taken last month following another consultation process, one that saw responses from over 100,000 people.

TfL is not perfect; London's public transport infrastructure still leaves much to be desired. Bringing the underground system to some semblance of modernity remains the ultimate challenge, involving as much politics as it does economics. But getting around London is undoubtedly much easier than it used to be.

Ken Livingstone has been evangelical about transport for as long as I can remember; as a student in the 1970s I was a huge beneficiary of his decision to reduce tube fares to very low levels.

It is such a shame that his history as a member of Labour's loony left means that his recent achievements are largely ignored.

His ultimate accolade will come as other cities in Britain and elsewhere start to copy his transport blueprint.