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New look LT's 'human face'
Page 23
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LONDON Transport is still the world's No I transport authority — despite its deterioration over the last few years, claimed Ralph Bennett, incoming chairman.
Mr Bennett was announcing changes in LT's management structure and introducing his new deputy John Stansby. He said that the new appointment marked the' Greater London Council's break with tradition in recognising the importance of having a public transport professional at the top of LT.
He said that reorganisation was not for its own sake but to give an improved service within the available resources. There was, he believed, a wealth of untapped talent within LT which it was his aim to unlock. Centralisation had gone too far and to combat it he had already taken the first step by appointing Dr David Quarmby as managing director for buses and Michael Robbins for railway.
London had changed greatly and the area which LT served and the diversity of its services were far greater than in the first days of LT some 45 years previously, said Mr Bennett.
But he admitted that the quality of bus and train services had deteriorated over the years, partly from circumstances outside LT's control. Persistent shortages of cash and manpower had taken their toll, he said, and some of the premises and rolling stock "were not as spick and span as they might be."
He believed that the way to combat LT's "faceless, impersonal and inflexible" image with the public was to decentralise management and bring it into closer touch with the travelling public. The two new managing directors would have full responsibility only for the transport services which they headed, and they in turn would be encouraged to give their own managers full scope to manage.
But he stressed that he would himself remain in control of liaison between buses and underground, along with his new deputy Mr Stansby.
LT has already made a start with its new reorganisation with 85 changes on bus routes. Easy-to-read "clock face" timetables would be introduced and a further 700 busmen employed before the end of this year.