LT asked for it, now it's shell ;hocked. Will it ever recover?
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HE LONDON TRANSPORT ne-bomb finally exploded last eek. Relations between LT and le Greater London Counci, )ve been deteriorating for :ars, and the crunch came hen a consultants' report (CM, me 21) was published, giving )nk details of many deficien35 at the top of the country's rgest passenger transport idertaking, writes ALAN ILLAR.
GLC leader Sir Horace Cutler ys he is disappointed but rdly surprised by the report, d he has given every indica'', that he expects heads to I. LT chairman Ralph Bennett, life-long busman who earns :6,271 a year, could be first to :e the Cutler firing squad, but as Mr Bennett who engaged International Ltd to carry out study two years ago.
And it is Ralph Bennett who II lead his fellow board imbers to a country retreat in attempt to hammer out the nificance of the report before iving at a new strategy for s future.
The report pulls no punches. )ccuses LT management of ng bad at marketing and hlights that it "has no conof market share and LT's ;lining proportion", and it s they are self-satisfied.
The word arrogant is, not .d, but that much is implied "Coupled with LT's status as of the oldest metropolitan lsport systems, a sense of vitable momentum and per-ience seems to have been lendered."
..T, says the report, has bele a fat bureaucracy in which ision-making takes too long, proposal originating from un a functional department have to be authorised by the artmental director; the busis management boards ess the department is a cenone), where it is debated y; the chairman's review Aing, where it is debated
again in front of all the time executive members; , finally, to the executive xi meeting, when it appears mally to be approved imatically.'' And the decision-making itself is said to be suspect. PA highlights the recent submission on the 1981-84 bus purchase programme in which MCW Metrobuses and Leyland Titans will re place Daimler Fleetlines. It said this did not take into account what effect there would be on the generation of revenue, operating cost savings, the level of bus miles offered, the likely level of passenger miles, or the quality of service.
Nor was any account taken of the level of service to be scheduled and operated, the number of spare buses needed, the balance between buying the buses and overhauling Fleetlines, the possibility of contracting out some of the maintenance, bus manufacturing costs, or, amazingly, the likely maintenance costs of different buses.
PA feels that LT management is complacent about its own performance, and adds: "There is a danger that ineffective corporate monitoring of functional performance can lead to mistaken decisions not being recognised as mistaken soon enough, nor then reversed."
The classic example of this is the Fleetline. PA says that, with a tougher corporate monitoring process, management would have recognised the folly of buying these buses before it saddled itself with a fleet of over 2500.
The consultants are convinced that LT's board is weak in the skills required to run a large business and even to run itself as a board. This means that it responds to and defends its position to the GLC rather than taking the initiative.
If the GLC is to loosen its grip on LT's day-to-day management, then the executive board must put its own house in order. Ralph Bennett's call (CM, January 19) for a Greater London passenger transport authority is seen as putting the cart before the horse.
PA accepts that it may be a long-term solution, but the priority now is for LT to prove its ability to provide an effective and efficient public transport system.
Board members themselves feel that they are already putting their house in order. They have realised that buses and railways have such separate characteristics that they should be managed separately, and the .divison of the bus business into eight operating districts is a further step towards decentralised management.
Much more needs to be done, they acknowledge, but as one put it: "You cannot change 50 years' operating practices inside a year."
They do feel a little hurt, though, that the PA report will make their job much harder. LT is in a process of change and is in crisis, and they feel that neither LT nor London's public will benefit from the warfare generated in the wake of the' report.
Little wonder that such quips are being bandied about as: "A consultant is a man of whom you ask the time; he borrows your watch, tells you the time, and then puts your watch in his pocket."
Transport and General Workers Union executive officer Larry Smith had not seen the full PA report when CM spoke to him last week, but the object of his wrath was Sir Horace Cutler rather than LT. "There's no point in sacking the manager just because the team isn't scoring any goals," he said.
While he accepts that LT management is far from blameless, the real problem lies, he says, in County Hall. It has failed to do anything about traffic congestion, it has failed to inject capital into LT, and it has failed to employ more police to cut down violence on the system.
He believes productivity will rise if LT invests in off-bus ticket sales equipment, and says that the TGWU has always supported one-man operation in London, so long as the driver does not have to collect fares.
He cites the Red Arrow flat fare services as "a success story" and believes the concept could be spread if ticket carnets were sold in shops, post offices, and hotels.
"Half of London's 12,000 licensed taxis would go off the road if people could rely on normal public transport. The public is being ripped off merely because it cannot use the public transport system,'" said Mr Smith.
No doubt these words will cheer Mr Bennett and his colleagues. He didn't want the consultants to pull any punches and has promised to take their advice to heart. "Changes have been called for, and changes there will be,'" he said last week, and pointed out that he would not have invested public money in the exercise if he had not felt there was any need to change.