From London Transport to Transport for London: The Unstable Mix of Politics, Management, and Public Service Values

Abstract

As state-run industries flourished in the post-war years, so did London Transport, developing even closer links with London’s local government as the London County Council was replaced by the Greater London Council (GLC) in 1965 (Garbutt, 1985). The 1980s were marked by the confrontation between the antagonistic policies of (then hard-left) Ken Livingstone, leader of the GLC from 1981 to 1986, and Margaret Thatcher, forceful neo-liberal Prime Minister. Mrs. Thatcher eventually rid herself of her local opponent, abolishing the GLC along with the six other Metropolitan Councils in 1986, and left a profound imprint on London Transport.1 From 1997 on, Margaret Thatcher’s passionate belief in the private sector’s values was followed by New Labour’s enthusiasm for communication and consultants’ tools and techniques. Tony Blair’s government’s promise to create the Greater London Authority had deep-reaching consequences on London Transport: it entailed the setting up of a new public transport operator with a larger remit, Transport for London, which first complemented and eventually absorbed London Transport (LT) (Glaister and Travers, 1998; Pimlott and Rao, 2002; Wolmar, 2002).