Mr. Valentine to Head London Transport
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THE appointment of Mr. A. B. B. Valentine as chairman of the London Transport Executive was announced by the Minister of Transport last Friday. He succeeds Sir John Elliot on July 1. At the same time, the appointment of Mr. A. H. Grainger as deputy chairman and managing director was announced.
For the past five years Mr. Valentine has been a full-time member of the British Transport Commission, a position which he will contime to hold. He is, however, a London Transport man, with 25 years of service behind him. He joined the Underground group of companies in 1928 and soon became an 'assistant in the office of the late Frank Pick and was closely associated with Lord Ashfietd.
When the London Transport Executive was set up in 1948, Mr. Valentine was appointed a full-time member of the body and he was a member, and later chairman, of the London Plan Working Party set up by the British Transport Commission in 1949. He was president of the Institute of Transport in 1951-52.
Mr. Grainger's appointment as deputy chairman and managing director, a term new to London Transport, follows a career beginning with the Metropolitan Railway Company in 1914. A solicitor, he was given wide administrative responsibilities by Lord Ashfield, and became a member of the Executive at its inception.
On Monday, Mr. Valentine said that, although the reins of office would not be in his hands for three months, he welcomed his return to 55 Broadway, Westminster.
As with other urban populations, London's traffic had undergone a complete change since the expanding economy of the 'twenties. Today, the private car and television both meant fewer passengers in the off-peak periods, although the peak traffic was probably higher than ever before. Although restriction on private motoring in London was undesirable, Mr. Valentine foresaw that, ultimately, some such limitation might be necessary.
TALKS ON" ONE-MAN" PAY OPEN
ADISCUSSION on the Transport and General Workers' Union's proposal that the extra payment to drivers of oneman buses should be increased from 15 per cent. to about 50 per cent, of basic wages was held last week between leaders of London busmen and the London Transport Executive.
The busmen's negotiating committee refused to agree to the immediate introduction of one-man buses on three services operating from Kin gst o n. although London Transport promised that any wage settlement would be made retrospective. At present the services are losing £48,000 a year.
London Transport wish to extend oneman working to a number of inner suburban routes during the summer.