Leah Rawlins became an area manager for Transport for London at age 23, and now runs Tottenham Court Road, the busiest TfL-owned station, with 63.4 million passengers annually. She oversees more than 120 staff members, some of whom have worked at the station since before she was born.
From Apprentice to Station Manager
Rawlins joined TfL in 2017 as part of its first general management apprenticeship cohort. Initially wary of the operational side, she quickly grew to love it after working as a gateline member and supervisor. She was handed the role of running six London Underground stations just six months after finishing her apprenticeship.
“I was very worried about going into a team where people are a lot older than me and where some have been in the job since before I was born,” she told MyLondon. “I wasn’t familiar with everything, so I had to rely on my team quite a lot, but rather than telling them what to do, I was asking ‘what’s happened here?’ Or ‘what do you think we should do for the best?’”
Turning Inexperience into an Advantage
Rawlins chose to use her lack of experience as an asset. “I was a lot younger and less experienced, but I turned this into an advantage by relying on the team and using them to help guide me. Although I have the final say in what happens, we’ve ended up using ways that are a lot more effective because I’ve had lots of different people's input into things.”
In 2025, she took charge of Tottenham Court Road, which became the busiest TfL-run station after the Elizabeth line opened. “It’s the same role, but it’s multiplied a lot; operations feel a lot faster-paced. If one line goes down all of a sudden, we could be dealing with a huge crowd of people, but it’s exciting to be working in a station that’s considered to be the TfL flagship,” she said.
Combating Fare Evasion and Antisocial Behaviour
Fare evasion and antisocial behaviour are regular issues at Tottenham Court Road. The fare evasion rate in London remains at 3.5 per cent, unchanged from the previous year, despite TfL campaigns. TfL aims to reduce this to 1.5 per cent by 2031, but Conservatives have criticised Mayor Sadiq Khan for missing the previous 1 per cent target for 2025.
“We regularly have enforcement operations in Tottenham Court Road [to tackle fare-dodging] and also work with the British Transport Police. We try to tackle these issues to make sure it’s better for our team and for those customers who are paying for their travel, so that these things are getting sorted,” Rawlins said.
Encouraging Young People to Join TfL
Rawlins encourages other young people to apply for TfL’s apprenticeship scheme. “TfL gives a huge amount of opportunities and really supports the apprentices we have here. You get to work across the organisation, which is huge. There are a lot of jobs across the organisation you don’t even know exist.”
