Buses: It's Transport for London (http://www.tfl.gov.uk/). They have a weird regulatory function with buses in London - they don't actually run any services, but define what the services should be and where they should run and then subcontract them out. A legacy of the Thatcher government, which decided that just having them run by London Transport as a public service would be close to Communism.
Trains: Actually, France has left-hand running as well, bizarrely enough. The main line out of Paddington is, I think, six-track out as far as Airport Junction for Heathrow, then goes down to the more traditional British standard up/down-fast, up,down-slow layout. Look up the Beeching Report for possibly the most convulsive event to hit the railways in their history (early 1960s). National Rail is kind of a weird umbrella brand run by all the passenger rail service franchisees (particular rail routes are franchised, while the actual infrastructure maintenance and operation is all handled by Network Rail). A legacy of the Major government, which decided that a single nationalised British Rail run as a public service was close to Communism.
Underground: Four-rail system: One (the outer rail) is at +420V, the centre rail's at -210VA, for a total of +630V. It's a weird system and dates from years ago, when it was found necessary to reduce the voltage of individual rails to reduce galvanic action between the rails and the cast-iron tunnel linings on the deep tube lines. Signalling is effectively track circuit block, with two-aspect signalling and drivers running "at sight" - i.e. they should always be able to stop within sight of a signal once it's in sight. Some hard to see signals have repeaters (yellow/green aspects rather than red/green), and overrunning of stop signals is prevented by trainstops. London Underground runs the trains but no longer maintains the infrastructure, which is now subcontracted out under a public/private partnership - a legacy of the Blair government, which decided that having a single nationalised London Underground run as a public service was close to Communism.
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Trains: Actually, France has left-hand running as well, bizarrely enough. The main line out of Paddington is, I think, six-track out as far as Airport Junction for Heathrow, then goes down to the more traditional British standard up/down-fast, up,down-slow layout. Look up the Beeching Report for possibly the most convulsive event to hit the railways in their history (early 1960s). National Rail is kind of a weird umbrella brand run by all the passenger rail service franchisees (particular rail routes are franchised, while the actual infrastructure maintenance and operation is all handled by Network Rail). A legacy of the Major government, which decided that a single nationalised British Rail run as a public service was close to Communism.
Underground: Four-rail system: One (the outer rail) is at +420V, the centre rail's at -210VA, for a total of +630V. It's a weird system and dates from years ago, when it was found necessary to reduce the voltage of individual rails to reduce galvanic action between the rails and the cast-iron tunnel linings on the deep tube lines. Signalling is effectively track circuit block, with two-aspect signalling and drivers running "at sight" - i.e. they should always be able to stop within sight of a signal once it's in sight. Some hard to see signals have repeaters (yellow/green aspects rather than red/green), and overrunning of stop signals is prevented by trainstops. London Underground runs the trains but no longer maintains the infrastructure, which is now subcontracted out under a public/private partnership - a legacy of the Blair government, which decided that having a single nationalised London Underground run as a public service was close to Communism.