When 19th-century engineers decided their new-fangled locomotives could be driven underground beneath London's crowded streets, they began a tradition for technological innovation that the capital's transport system has never lost.

Today the cutting edge has moved from steam to cyber, but the driving force is the same as it was for the Victorians – how can more people be moved more quickly and efficiently through the capital's jumbled, crowded streets?

At the heart of this is no nimble tech startup, but the capital's transport authority, Transport for London, which vaunts its record as an innovator in the field with some justice, according to the experts.

"It's a tradition that goes right back into the beginnings of London Transport," said Professor Stephen Glaister of the RAC Foundation. "One reason they are so important is simply that they are so big. For example, what London buses does tends to influence what the manufacturers do ahead of anyone else."

That scale, he says, has helped the city take a lead in everything from adopting diesel-electric hybrid buses, to revolutionising ticketing systems, he said, pointing to integrated travelcards in the 1980s, through to the Oyster card in 2003 and now contactless payments. "With London being so big and so dense, the economics of public transport have been much more favourable. It's worth spending money on new technology."

Rush hour on the tube. Photograph: Alamy

Although the hard engineering continues to develop, with the major east-west link Crossrail claiming to have pioneered new techniques in construction of its stations and tunnels below the city, nowadays new capacity is being unleashed by less tangible developments: sharing information, networking signals and simplifying travel for customers.

Christian Wolmar, the transport historian and prospective Labour mayoral candidate, gives qualified approval to the idea that TfL is a hotbed of innovation. "Their record's not bad in this respect. But they are a massive organisation in one of the biggest and most successful cities in the world. If they weren't at the leading edge of technology it would be going badly wrong." He cites ticketing and traffic control systems as "fantastic" but believes there remain areas badly in need of an update – namely the congestion charge cameras.

"Photographing number plates is not leading edge technology. They should be looking at a more sophisticated system. In other countries you get an in-car device. This is just about policing a frontier: it's time for something better."

Glaister concurs that London still requires upgrades, pointing to road signals that were pioneering but "very much of their day". He adds: "That's always a problem with early adoption - you then have the oldest equipment."

Wolmar agrees that TfL's scale makes it well placed to take advantage of the possibilities opened up by new technology. "Innovations normally can't be self-financing: whether it's building underground lines or developing car clubs, innovation often comes from the public sector that takes the risk in the early stages before the private sector starts making money. That's happened throughout history."

While celebrations to mark major anniversaries of train and bus travel in London have underscored that heritage, there are plenty of ways in which TfL is looking to the future. Areas of ongoing innovation include:

Contactless payments



An Oyster card. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

The capital's Oyster smartcards were pioneering in Europe (although adapted from a similar system in Hong Kong) but the writing is already on the wall after just over a decade, as buses and tube systems in the capital start taking payments by contactless bank cards and mobile phones. Why, ask Underground bosses, should customers effectively convert their currency? From September passengers will be able to enter by tapping their credit card at the barriers - with the new Tannoy announcement "avoid card clash" joining the familiar "mind the gap" as the sound of the Underground. Card clash can be avoided with an even newer technology, contactless payments via mobile phones: EE's Cash on Tap app became compatible with London buses this week and will also work across the transport network this autumn.

Payment caps will stay in place to ensure customers don't pay more than when using Oyster. Cash was eradicated from London buses last month - criticised by some for effectively penalising the occasional traveller, and now leaving the poorest without credit cards also without access to cheaper fares. But abandoning cash is estimated to save TfL £24m a year.

Access to bus seating



As any commuter knows, the current method of ascertaining whether seats are free upstairs on a crowded double decker is Chinese whispers along a line of passengers stuck between entrance and stairwell, where a teenager in headphones blocking the way blithely asserts that there are no seats, whatever. That could soon change with TfL trialling onboard information screens that will show available seats. The screens will also display the bus's route and progress, nearby transport connections and estimated times of arrival. The trial will also belatedly bring free WiFi to passengers (a development where London lags behind much of the country). A separate trial of new bus sensor technology should meanwhile tell drivers when pedestrians or cyclists are in their dangerous blind spots.

Automatic operation

People using the London Underground network. There is now an array of brilliant apps to help passengers. Photograph: Alamy

Driverless Tube trains may sound like a dystopian Borisian fantasy, but even if the London mayor may wish to reduce the workforce, much of the actual driving was eliminated from some Underground drivers' jobs as early as 1967 when the Victoria line opened. With a new generation of signalling, automatic operation has allowed a huge increase in train frequencies. Now TfL has ambitions to bring in similar systems on the national rail lines that come into the capital, potentially allowing far more trains to run (something that will happen as part of the Thameslink upgrade). Further ahead, TfL is monitoring the implications of driverless technology, with a recent infrastructure plan anticipating driverless buses in the coming decades.

Open data

Vernon Everitt, TfL's managing director for customer experience, claims London is a global leader in its open approach to data, with live information shared freely with developers, around 6,000 of whom have registered to take feeds from the Tube and roads control rooms. This has not only led to an array of brilliant apps for passengers, but their use has helped TfL monitor shifts in demand as passengers monitor information about the whereabouts of their tube trains, Boris bikes and buses, in a way that suits them – not just going to the TfL website, he said, adding that the website has been used by around three quarters of Londoners to check on their journey.

Managing the traffic

An integrated control room in Southwark watches every major road remotely by roadside CCTV and lets the traffic team access thousands more cameras from police and buses. Controllers can override the traffic signals to unblock or pre-empt jams, though computers usually optimise the flow of vehicles via the half of the city's traffic lights that are now on a central grid. Programmers are working towards allowing controllers to tackle blockages arising in London's complex street layout with the help of simulations run in real time, giving an immediate and comprehensive picture of the likely effects of the different choices in shifting traffic behaviour.

Managing the pedestrians

The "scoot" technology that helps keep cars flowing at traffic lights is being extended for pedestrian signals in trials billed as a world first. Cameras detect waiting pedestrian numbers and adjust the timings accordingly - and will have the ability to cancel the green man altogether if they spot that pedestrians have already crossed before the signals change.