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Meet the chairmen of the new PTAs
Page 66
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1-Harry Sharp
An exclusive interview with Ashley Taylor
With nearly 30 years' experience of municipal transport, wide interests in other local authority fields, and a business career that has taken him through to the chairmanship of a leading northern catering organization, Alderman Harry Sharp of Manchester is an appropriate choice for the position of chairman of the S.E. Lancashire and N.E. Cheshire Passenger Transport Authority. He brings the businessman's approach to his new responsibilities and says "For 10 years public passenger transport has been a dying industry, a trend that must be reversed for the benefit of the community in general and the passengers in particular. This is a chance to take action. Of those travelling into the city (of Manchester) 70 per cent already use public transport but we need to attract more passengers by the frequency, reliability and comfort of the services offered. In these days I don't think price is the governing factor."
Decision maker
A former Lord Mayor, Aid. Sharp has been a member of the Manchester transport committee ever since he joined the city council in 1940, is in his third spell as transport committee chairman (the chairmanship being limited to three years in succession) and is a regular attender at Municipal Passenger Transport Association conferences. He is chairman of the Manchester traffic congestion committee and the licensing and fire brigade committee; he is also g member of the police authority and the finance committee. He describes local government as his hobby, devoting something like half his time to it. In the other half he manages to be chairman of Smallmans Ltd, a catering organization with a staff of some 3,000, chairman of Broughton House (a home for disabled soldiers, sailors and airmen), to maintain an active association with the Missions to Seamen, and to give personal assistance to numerous charitable organizations. All this, he says, has given him plenty of practice at making decisions and when necessary delegating duties.
Top-level leader
First of all the local PTA council (a total of 30, four of them nominated by the Minister of Transport and the rest comprising a cross-section of Labour, Liberal, Tory and Independent elected representatives) will be concerned with the appointment of a director-general and the position is now being advertised. The salary is in the £9,000 /£10,000 bracket for which figure they aim to recruit a top-level leader and then form an executive who in due course will report back with their proposals. The position as Aid. Sharp sees it demands a first-class administrator perhaps more than specifically a transport expert. At an early date the PTA will be considering the confidential SELNEC report in relation to public transport.
Above all, Ald. Sharp believes that the PTA must be a viable undertaking and "it must take the greatest possible care not to make the mistake of the nationalized industries of creating a huge secretariat and building up a considerable debt. A tremendous task faces the PTA in welding together the various undertakings when they come under one umbrella but it is hoped that the effect will be to give the outer areas facilities that are an improvement on those now existing."
In Manchester, market research has been undertaken in connection with a "commuter" service that is to commence in the near future between Hale and the city centre. First-class fares will be charged, seats will probably be reservable and stops will be few. A circuit of the city centre will be made so that businessmen can be set down at points near to their offices. Another express service is planned on one route with a fast
schedule and good frequency, the initial object being to ascertain if these features are attractive to the public. In all, it is hoped that with the creation of bus traffic lanes, and the future development of a rapid transport system in conjunction with the existing railways, the whole approach of public transport will become more attractive to the travelling community.
"Passenger transport is a matter of selling rides and to do that it is necessary to find out what the customer wants," says Aid. Sharp. "In the past many undertakings have been bound by tradition and expense. Now with larger fleets there should be every opportunity to cater more closely for particular local needs. Whilst comfort may be a primary consideration for one class of passenger a speedy service achieved by the use of standee buses may be the answer elsewhere."
Obviously breadth of vision and an acceptance of adjustment will be needed but that does not mean that anybody is going to be worse off, the new chairman told me. Just as the formation of the combined Lancashire Constabulary has meant that senior men have had to be given new responsibilities and new titles so existing transport officers can expect to be fitted into the coming transport pattern. Where redundancies occur they will probably be met by normal wastage.
Questions of Status
Manchester has already had considerable success with one-man operation, including double deckers, and Ald. Sharp expects that in 10 years o-m-o will be the general rule. He feels that the time is overdue for raising the status of the driver and the conductor. "The right men, drawing good money and taking a pride in their job, will always be better representatives of the undertaking in their contacts with the public than those who are constantly wondering if they wouldn't be better off elsewhere. In endeavouring to improve the status of the platform staff—and thus to give the public greater confidence in the overall ability of the undertaking—one must think in terms of better uniforms and improved conditions, whilst the pay must be sufficient to compensate for the service the men are expected to give in the way of Sunday, weekend and evening work, concluded Aid. Sharp.