LT's new chairman: under sentence or facing a challenge?
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TO BE FACED with the chairmanship of London Transport at 66 might seem more of a punishment than a challenge, even if there is a £34,000 salary with it. But Sir Peter Masefield is putting more than a brave face on it; he. is rising with enthusiasm to. the prospect of being able to put the capital's public transport system back into good order, reports ALAN Ml LIAR.
The man who was a part-time LT board member for seven years, who is deputy chairman of British Caledonian Airways, a director of the Nationwide Building Society, and vicepresident of the Royal Society of Arts, has impressive credentials.
He has devoted over 40 years to civil aviation, including a spell as British European Airways' chief executive, and knows as much as anyone about the problems of guiding large public and private organisations through political minefields.
And LT has been holed by many mines in the last few months. Beset by mounting losses, its relations with the Greater London Council have sunk to an all-time low, its management skills have been criticised in public, and Sir Peter's predecessor, Ralph Bennett, has been dismissed.
Undaunted, Sir Peter insists that there is a job to be done, and that it must be done quickly. He rejects the idea of his job being labelled "'caretaker'', even if he does plan to step down by next summer. Perhaps troubleshooter is nearer fhe mark.
He wants LT to regain its confidence, to become a happy ship, and is convinced that this will come through devolution. New management boards are being created to run the buses, railways, and property, and the bus and rail boards meet for the first time on September 1. In turn, the eight bus operating districts set up under managing director (buses) David Qua rrnby will be given more autonomy. There are similar plans for the tube lines.
Management will form a pyramid structure, with power and responsibility being pushed down wherever possible. -But I
will still carry the can, assures Sir Peter.
• But what about the G LC which drove his predecessor from the driving seat? No great problem, according to Sir Peter, who has alreadY ordered a massive cut in the flow of paperwork between 55 Broadway and County Hall. There is no point, he says, in politicians being told such details as how many times LT changes its wheels. -We'll run the business. They are our bankers and shareholders, and they will get what they need to know."
And what both organisations need to know is the extent of demand for public transport, and the extent to which LT and GLC can satisfy it. Sir Peter has already commissioned demand surveys superior, he claims, to the National Bus MAP exercises and will present LT's findings to the GLC at the earliest opportunity.
When LT's fares go up on September 21, Sir Peter believes passengers' pockets will have been stretched to their limit. But he is equally certain that there will always be a gap between revenue and expenditure, and much debate with the GLC will revolve around that point. He believes it is as much a social as a transport debate, and suggests GLC might see some merit in adopting the principle of British Rail's public service ohligatiorr for LT's socially necessary services. In return, he will make LT more commercially minded, and he has several marketing ploys up his sleeve. "We will be consumer-orientated. Passengers are part of our business, not an interruption of our work, and we will aim to build up our commercial revenue.'
There will be more promotional activities to fill empty seats, and Sir Peter wants to make it easier for people to ride by bus. Off-bus ticket sales will be encouraged, and he is keen that the system should become more comprehensive and better known. LT will become more productive, possibly by increased one-man operation, but Sir Peter echoes the long-held LT view that two-man buses are more productive in central London.
New buses are a great help, too, and his praise for the Leyland Titan and MCW Metrobus is fulsome. They are becoming more reliable and economical than some of the types being replaced, and this looks like putting LT's own XRM project into cold storage, Sir Peter is keen not to prejudge the issue, but says it is probably more prudent to wring the last drop out of the Titan and Metrobus particularly if their unladen weight can be cut down substantially and perhaps develop a "super XRM" in the mid-1990s. By then, new ideas and new propulsion units may be around, and Sir Peter
equates his "'super XRMwith a second generation of supersonic airliner. ,
Existing plans to extend the lives of the 1958/67-built Routemaster fleet will continue.
Sir Peter shares his colleagues" enthusiasm for their open plat forms which he believes help make them easier for the public to use than their more sophisticated successors.
He says LT could not run without Chiswick and Aldenham works, and says that while the work done there is constantly under review, he does not envi
sage any drastic changes to their immediate future. He concedgs that things might be different if he was starting with a clean sheet, but he is not.
Sir Peter is a realist when it comes to competition, and is firmly against banning cars from
London. -It is a bad practice to kick a shut door.LT must live
with the car, but it can woo the motorist on to its services if they are of a high enough standard.
Nor does he think that the ,1980 Transport Act contains any threat to LT. "I am not a monopoly man," he says, pointing to his British Caledo nian interest, but points out that private operators should be prepared to take the rough with the smooth and should not just be allowed to cream off LT's best routes. His priority is to meet the
London public's demand. -We will say what we can do to meet it, but by all means let the private operator do what we can't do.
Sir Peter is confident that he has a "jolly good teamat 55
Broadway, and he intends tc make fullest use of his part-time board members, too. Of these, Transport Development Group chairman Jim Duncan will chaii the finance committee, bringinc
the financial and transport skiN of his own devolved business tc the capital's transport system and Leslie Chapman "scourge of the bureaucratswill head a team looking intc LT's productivity.
Sir Peter says he has come tc LT with a good deal of humility He also has the resolve to give i every chance of becoming great transport organisatior once again.