MP condemns London Transport management
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from our political correspondent
• London Transport bus service managers were condemned on Wednesday as "a blMkered bureaucracy and masters of evasion".
Mr Nigel Spearing, Labour MP for Acton, expressed total dissatisfaction with the attitude of Sir Richard Way, chairman of London Transport, towards "gaps" in bus services. "London Transport have refused to initiate spot checks on these gaps and bunching because they believe their existing studies of performance records are adequate," he complained.
Mr Spearing has been in extensive correspondence with Sir Richard for several weeks. "If they cannot see things from the passengers' point of view as well as their own, their management is blinkered and therefore inefficient," said Mr Spearing in a public statement. "I have received evasive answers to questions about mass breakdowns caused by bad design of one-man buses particularly those operating the E services in Ealing," he said.
Mr Spearing said London Transport had admitted that many buses were off the road due to lack of spares. "Since these buses were designed and built with public money and are owned by their passengers London Transport are accountable to the public for the contracts concerned," he added.
In correspondence Sir Richard said that when bus shortages were 10 per cent or higher there was bound to be serious disruption of services. In order to improve the running of the "E" services and others worked by buses of the same type, London Transport had increased the number of MB-class vehicles allocated to the engineers as spare buses. Sir Richard said labour disputes in the engineering and motor industries were partly responsible for the spares shortages. But there had also been premature failures caused by design defects and the shorter than expected life of some components. He promised to watch the position very closely.