2-Frank Griffin
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An exclusive interview with Ashley Taylor
THE KEY MAN in the new West Midlands Passenger Transport Area will be the directorgeneral of the Executive appointed to run the public transport services in the Area. This is the firm belief of Alderman Frank Griffin, leader of Birmingham City Council, and newly appointed first chairman of the region's Passenger Transport Authority.
The director-general must be the "best man available", says Aid. Griffin. His basic requirement will be experience in handling a large fleet of passenger vehicles, from which it will follow that he will be a good administrator. The appointment of the right man to this post (currently advertised at a salary in the £9,000 /£10,000 bracket) is "essential to the foundation of a good organization on which to build future success", he believes.
Although the West Midlands PTA has held its first meeting, it will not become a legal entity until the Executive (consisting probably of eight top men responsible for operation generally, in addition to the director-general) is established, he stresses. This he expects will take place about August or September, subject to the approval of the Minister, following which the four municipal bus undertakings in the Area will be vested in the Executive.
This merger of the Birmingham, Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton fleets will result in a total fleet strength of about 2,200 buses. Asked if this would be too large an undertaking he said that it was difficult to decide on an optimum fleet size. Fie thought, however, that it seemed pointless to weld four undertakings together, providing better integration, then divide them up again. A larger unit provided more resilience, whereas small units would feel every wind of change and he would much prefer to run a larger unit. The buses would continue to operate locally at first and retain their identity; a gradual integration, without interruption of the transport system as a whole, would then be undertaken. Individual districts would provide individual problems—it was the PTA's intention to deal with such problems as they arose.
Ald. Griffin himself is an experienced administrator, and a good choice for chairman. For 30 years he has been a director of Ryland Garages Ltd., now the Ryland Vehicle Group Ltd. Covering the five West Midlands counties, the Group are agents for Atkinson and Seddon Commercial vehicles and have recently also embraced Vauxhall vehicles and Bed ford Trucks. The company operates a very successful business with an annual turnover of £2-1,m. His position with the company has given him "practical rather than operational experience". He is a member of the Motor Agents' Association, became chairman of its Birmingham district and later the West Midland region, and has been a member of the MAA council for many years. He is also a member of the West Midlands Planning Authority's Conference, covering Hereford, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire, and has been its chairman for the past three years. The conference is "welding itself into a regional unit".
Turning to politics, Aid. Griffin is an astute politician. He joined the Birmingham City Council in 1949, became deputy leader of the Conservative group in 1953 and leader two years later. He is a member of the council's finance and housing committees. Although he wants to remove the political aspect of the PTAs for the time being—"these Authorities were forced upon us but we must accept them and through them provide the maximum public service"—he disagreed that the provision of public transport could be removed from politics altogether. "We must have politics—it represents the highest level of living—and in the long run politics and transport cannot be separated. In any case one cannot avoid Government interference", he said.
He is anxious that the level of service should be good, and improved where necessary, while at the same time the financial aspect is kept under as close a control as possible. He admitted, however, that with regard to the financial aspect the Government had the last word in some matters.
The officials of the undertakings due to be taken over would not be disturbed unnecessarily, he said. "It is unthinkable that staff should be disturbed through a matter of policy", he reassured me. "We want to provide the best possible service over the widest possible area and at the same time secure the position of and satisfy the employees who will make the organization work."
With regard to the Walsall trolleybus system he said that it was not logical that the trolleybuses would disappear when the Executive was formed. The use of trolleybuses was confined to one local area and they would be regarded in the terms of their productivity as part of the public transport system in that area. If they were performing a useful function they would not be disturbed. He assumed, however, that the eventual reorganization of services throughout the conurbation would be performed by the more mobile motor bus.
On the subject of one-man double-deckers, the new PTA chairman remarked that such buses had been operating in the area for some time. The Executive would look at individual routes and extend o-m-o, employing double-deckers, so far as was practicable. He did not believe that all routes would necessarily be switched to o-m-o. 'We should look to conductors where the pressure of traffic dictates", he said.
We then discussed the subject of local railway services, and non-viable lines. I had particularly in mind the very forlorn-looking Birmingham Snow Hill station where only one platform remains open at this once very busy station. It is used by a peak-hour service operated by diesel multiple-units running through to Wolverhampton (low level station) serving local stations en route. Through passengers are not carried (they must use the new electric line from New Street to Wolverhampton (high levelp, none of the stations is manned and passengers pay the guard on the train. Would such services, running entirely in the area, be maintained by the PTA?
Aid. Griffin said that these services would be ,reviewed with BR. The Authority would have to have full knowledge of present losses and consider whether abandonment of such a line would overload existing bus services or lead to a duplication of the road system to cater for additional motorists. The motor car gave the maximum convenience, he felt, and consideration would have to be made of whether journeys could be made more quickly by buses, trains or private cars.
As for plans for the future—such as express bus services—these could not be discussed until the Executive was formed, and the buses transferred from their present operators. A firm of consultants was, however, currently examining the traffic requirements of central Birmingham. They would advise on the feasibility of underground railways or subways for buses.
I described Ald. Griffin earlier as an astute politician. It is interesting to note that Birmingham City Council appointed six Conservatives and three Labour men as their representatives on the Authority. "This represents the proportion of Labour to Conservative members on the City Council", he said. Then he added that, because so many of the other local councils were Conservative controlled, the new Authority had a Conservative majority.