Caroline Pidgeon was made an MBE in the New Years Honours. File picture: PA

Transport services in London during the Olympics were widely praised for their efficiency, running like clockwork when compared to the rest of the year.

So it is fitting that all those who played some part in ensuring Games visitors were smoothly ferried around the capital are recognised in the New Years Honours list.

Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly group, has been made an MBE for her public and political service after two decades as an elected politician.

One of City Hall’s leading lights, she chairs the transport committee that held Transport for London bosses to account for their network’s performance during the Games.

“I was really shocked,” she said. “It just feels like an amazing year in London, with the Jubilee and the Olympics.

“I am very happy to have got the MBE in recognition of all that work.”

“In terms of this year, we have had transport providers before us making sure that things were working during the Games, and we want to make sure this continues (in 2013).”

Ms Pidgeon also served as an Lib Dem councillor in Southwark for 12 years, and was elected deputy leader of the council at the age of 29.

Her public service work in London also extended to places on the Metropolitan Police Authority until 2012 and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority between 2008 and 2010.

She added: “I have no idea who nominated me. It would have to be one of the groups who I have worked with in the past.

“It has been a surprise.”