Boost for the company structure
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If it has been an upside-down life in the business world in the past few days, with the collapse of blue-chip Rolls-Royce and its immediate nationalization, then it promises to be as odd and unpredictable a period in road transport. It is only about two years since the Passenger Transport Authorities were established as iphysical expressions of the argument that only large, single organizations of this type could hope to control transport in the big conurbations; yet this week we learn that the SELNEC Executive has decided to run its business through three separate limited companies.
This, of course, does not in itself negate the principle, since overall control remains in a single body, but there can seldom have been such an unexpected boost for the virtues of the decentralized company structure. Such an arrangement, CM was told this week by the PTE's director general, was thought to be the way to bring the greatest benefits to passengers and would make the handling of fares schemes less remote. The change in structure is not so drastic in SELNEC as it might have been elsewhere, since operations were already split into three divisions, but the decision to give virtually independent status to these, with compact three-men management boards, is nevertheless a considerable step away from the original political concept of PTAs. It will be seen by busmen a.s a reaction to the realities of the situation, though it may bring howls of protest from some quarters.
We shall have to wait to see whether the change brings unsuspected problems, but it is certainly in line with the philosophy expounded by the director of operations at the SRPTA conference a year ago. He was insistent that one of the main dangers was that the Executive would become too immersed in day-to-day operation and fail to stand back to survey the field of general transportation where the greatest problems were likely to arise. This latest move can be seen as an insurance against that eventuality, and may prove a pattern for at least one of the other PTAs.