Chapter 3: Cars, Innovation and Finance

In the previous chapters, we have seen how London Transport’s decline spanned several different phases. In phase one, 1948–1952, little changed in terms of modal use and the organisation remained viable ostensibly. In the next phase from the early 1950s to the late-1960s, car ownership tripled, public transport ridership declined rapidly, and the financial equilibrium established under Lord Ashfield 50 years previously was upset. In the third phase from 1970 to 1984 London Transport broke with the past and was drastically re-organised. This coincided with the end of the great car boom, but unfortunately an internal policy vacuum in the organisation was filled by increasing political control which resulted in serious instability and conflicts over strategy at the highest levels. This precluded full advantage being taken of the opportunity presented. In the final phase 1984–1987, managerial control was re-asserted alongside a profit-maximising strategy. This overlapped with a dramatic change in London’s wider economic and demographic fortunes, and these factors together powered a rapid resurgence in London Transport’s ridership and financial status.