London Regional Transport

London Regional Transport

Formation	29 June 1984 (London Regional Transport Act 1984)
Extinction	2 July 2000 (Greater London Authority Act 1999)
Type	Public body
Purpose	Transport authority
Headquarters	55 Broadway, Westminster, London
Region served	Greater London
Main organ	London Transport
Parent organisation	Government of the United Kingdom

London Regional Transport (LRT) was the organisation responsible for the public transport network in Greater London, England between 1984 and 2000. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operational brand of the organisation was London Transport.

History

The LRT was created by the London Regional Transport Act 1984 and was under direct state control, reporting to the Secretary of State for Transport.^[1] It took over responsibility from the Greater London Council on 29 June 1984, two years before the GLC was formally abolished.^[2] Because the Act only received the Royal assent three days earlier, its assets were temporarily frozen by the banks as they had not received mandates to transfer.^[3] The headquarters of the new organisation remained at the former London Transport Executive building at 55 Broadway.^[4]

On 1 April 1985, the company was re-organised into several companies with London Regional Transport as the holding company. London Buses Limited^[5] was formed to manage the bus network and London Underground Limited^[6] the London Underground network, as wholly owned subsidiaries of LRT.^[7]

In 1985 the operation of some bus services was put out to tender for the first time and, for a number of years, buses bearing a variety of different colour-schemes operated alongside those still operating in the traditional red livery by operators such as Armchair Passenger Transport, Boro'line Maidstone, Capital Citybus, Grey-Green, Harris Bus, Kentish Bus, London Buslines and Metrobus. In response to the competition, LRT established low-cost business units Bexleybus and Westlink. The variety of liveries was found to be confusing to tourists and non-Londoners expecting to find red-painted buses and, after lobbying from the tourist board, in 1997 it became a requirement when contracts were retendered that bus liveries be predominantly red.

In 1987, the computer services division was sold to Cap Gemini for £1.3 million.^[8] On 1 April 1989 London Buses was divided into business units, in preparation for privatisation.

Business unit	Area	Logo	Legal entity
CentreWest	West	Arrow	CentreWest London Buses Limited[9]
East London	East	Barge	East London Bus & Coach Company Limited[10]
Leaside	River Lea	Swan	Leaside Bus Company Limited[11]
London Central	South central	Ship	London Central Bus Company Limited[12]
London Forest	Waltham Forest	Oak tree	London Forest Travel Limited[13]
London Coaches	Central London	n/a	London Coaches Limited[14]
London General	Southwest	Omnibus	London General Transport Services Limited[15]
London Northern	North	Parliament	London Northern Bus Company Limited[16]
London United	Southwest	Crest	London United Busways Limited[17]
Metroline	Northwest	Stripes	Metroline Travel Limited[18]
Selkent	Southeast	Hops	South East London & Kent Bus Company Limited[19]
South London	South	Tower Bridge	South London Transport Limited[20]
Westlink	Kingston	n/a	Stanwell Buses Limited[21]

Upon the privatisation of British Rail, the Waterloo & City line passed to the London Underground and LRT management on 1 April 1994.^[22] In 1994/95, the bus units were sold. LRT remained in control of public transport in London until 2 July 2000 when Transport for London, an agency of the newly created Greater London Authority took over responsibility under the Greater London Authority Act 1999.

Fares

LRT was responsible for some modifications to the fare system, including inclusion of the separately managed British Rail services. In January 1985 the Capitalcard season ticket was launched, offering validity on British Rail as well as London Underground and London Buses. It was priced around 10-15% higher than the Travelcard.^[23] In June 1986 the One Day Capitalcard was launched.^[23] The Capitalcard brand ended in January 1989 when the Travelcard gained validity on British Rail. In January 1991 Zone 5 was split to create a new Zone 6.^[23] The Docklands Light Railway was opened on 31 August 1987 and was included in the zonal Travelcard ticketing scheme.

References

External links

• London Transport (Archive)