A transport system, in particular an airport luggage transport system and a controller for the transport system are described. The transport system transports items to a predetermined destination on predefined transport routes via several branching locations. A master controller sets for each transported item a destination and a transport route, which are processed by one or more slave controllers. Each transported item is given an identification number that is identified by the slave controller. The master controller provides to the slave controller the destination associated with each identification number and associates with each destination at the branching locations a forwarding direction. Forwarding is processed by the slave controller without an interrogation of the master controller, based on the preset association at the branching locations.