Cell for London PTE
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LONDON TRANSPORT should be incorporated into a new Greater London Passenger Transport Authority, according to LT chairman Ralph Bennett who says this would improve co-ordination.
He told a Dublin meeting of the Chartered Institute of Transport this week that it was against the public's best interests for British Rail and LT to be under such fundamentally different forms of political and financial control.
Mr Bennett drew comparisons with the seven provincial passenger transport executives which divide control between politicians (PTAs) and management (PTEs), and said the same should be done for London.
"I believe that the PTA/PTE set-up should be introduced in the London area, covering not only the whole of Greater London, but also most of the rail services used by commuters travelling in from beyond the green belt."
He said that this would help meet the need to co-ordinate services provided by different forms of transport, and would streamline different operators' fare scales and charges.
It would also help traffic management, and town planning where this influences the demand for transport and for staff. There was also a need for a better approach to the allocation of money for service support and for improvements. But Mr Bennett did say that a decision on such an organisation rested with politicians.
He issued a warning to them, though, saying: "One danger is that short-term political considerations will cut across long-term transport requirements. This difficulty may be minimised by seeing that transport problems are better understood."