London Transport Board
Encyclopedia
The London Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, and its environs from 1963-1969. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operational brand of the organisation was London Transport
London Transport (brand)
London Transport was the public name and brand used by a series of public transport authorities in London, England, from 1933. Its most recognisable feature was the bar-and-circle 'roundel' logo...

.

History

The organisation was created on 1 January 1963 by the Transport Act 1962
Transport Act 1962
The Transport Act 1962 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Described as the "most momentous piece of legislation in the field of railway law to have been enacted since the Railway and Canal Traffic Act 1854", it was passed by Harold Macmillan's Conservative government to dissolve the...

 and replaced the London Transport Executive
London Transport Executive
The London Transport Executive was the organisation responsible for public transport in the Greater London area, UK, between 1948-1962. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operational brand of the organisation was London Transport.-Creation:On 1...

 (LTE) upon the dissolution of the British Transport Commission
British Transport Commission
The British Transport Commission was created by Clement Attlee's post-war Labour government as a part of its nationalisation programme, to oversee railways, canals and road freight transport in Great Britain...

. It was an independent statutory undertaking reporting directly to the Minister of Transport
Secretary of State for Transport
The Secretary of State for Transport is the member of the cabinet responsible for the British Department for Transport. The role has had a high turnover as new appointments are blamed for the failures of decades of their predecessors...

, whose responsibilities were similar to those of the LTE, but with the addition of some railway lines previously the responsibility of British Railways. The first Chairman was A.B.B. Valentine
Alexander Valentine
Sir Alexander Balmain Bruce Valentine OStJ MA , was Chairman of the London Transport Executive from 1959 to 1963 and Chairman of the London Transport Board from 1963 to 1965.-Family:...

, who had been the Chairman of the LTE.

The London Transport Board was responsible for the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 and for bus and coach services within the London Passenger Transport Area, an area with a radius of about 30 miles from London established when the London Passenger Transport Board
London Passenger Transport Board
The London Passenger Transport Board was the organisation responsible for public transport in London, UK, and its environs from 1933 to 1948...

 was formed in 1933.

There was a severe lack of investment during this period caused by policy favouring the primacy of the motor car. Despite the lack of investment services were not cut as elsewhere in the country, under the Beeching Axe
Beeching Axe
The Beeching Axe or the Beeching Cuts are informal names for the British Government's attempt in the 1960s to reduce the cost of running British Railways, the nationalised railway system in the United Kingdom. The name is that of the main author of The Reshaping of British Railways, Dr Richard...

. The board was responsible for the devising the Bus Reshaping Plan
Bus Reshaping Plan
The Bus Reshaping Plan of 1966 was a plan devised by the London Transport Board for the reorganisation of bus routes in London, England. The main features of the plan, which was to be rolled out over ten to fifteen years, were:...

 in 1966, a comprehensive programme of changes to bus services.

By 1970 the roads in London had become so congested that the Greater London Development Plan included in its scope policy to reduce dependence on the car. On 1 January 1970 responsibility for public transport within the Greater London area was passed to the Greater London Council
Greater London Council
The Greater London Council was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council which had covered a much smaller area...

 (GLC) under the Transport (London) Act 1969, with the London Transport brand retained by the GLC. Those bus services which ran outside the GLC area, together with Green Line Coaches
Green Line Coaches
Green Line is a commuter coach brand in the Home Counties of England. It is owned by the Arriva group.Green Line has its origin in the network of coach services established by the London General Omnibus Company in the 1920s and 1930s...

, were passed to a new company, London Country Bus Services
London Country Bus Services
London Country Bus Services was a bus company that operated in South East England from 1969 until split up and sold in 1986 under Margaret Thatcher's government's bus deregulation scheme.-Creation:...

, formed on 1 January 1970 as a subsidiary of the National Bus Company.

See also

  • Sir Alexander Valentine
    Alexander Valentine
    Sir Alexander Balmain Bruce Valentine OStJ MA , was Chairman of the London Transport Executive from 1959 to 1963 and Chairman of the London Transport Board from 1963 to 1965.-Family:...

     - Chairman, 1962 to 1965
  • Sir Maurice Holmes
    Maurice Holmes (barrister)
    Sir Maurice Andrew Holmes was a barrister and Chairman of the London Transport Board from 1965 to 1969.Holmes attended Felsted School, Essex....

    - Chairman, 1965 to 1969
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK