The Tube boss credited with making the trains run on time during the Olympics is leaving to run an Australian rail network.
Howard Collins, the London Underground chief operations director, also played a huge part in getting the network operational again within days of the 2005 terrorist attacks.
Mr Collins, 54, who received an OBE for his services to the Games, will take up the £355,000-a-year post of chief executive officer of Sydney Trains in June.
On a recent visit there he admitted to being shocked by traffic congestion and the state of the rail network. “It reminded me of the London Underground 25 years ago in terms of the ticketing, the technology, the environment.”
The Sydney Daily Telegraph wished him “all the very best of luck... the same thing we say to anyone trying to catch a Sydney train”.
