§ Mr. HillTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on developments on London Underground since his statement on 20 March. [39422]
§ Mr. PrescottI have decided to restructure the London Transport Board, bringing in a part-time non-executive Chairman. The present Chairman of London Transport (LT), Peter Ford, who is a full-time executive Chairman, has therefore been asked to vacate the chairman's job. Mr. Ford will therefore leave LT today.
612WI should like to pay tribute to the commitment Peter Ford has shown to London Transport over the past three and a half years. His period as Chairman has seen a marked increase in the number of passengers using the Underground and the London buses, reaching record levels. There has also been a major improvement in the financial performance of both businesses, and of LT as a whole, such that LT now makes a substantial contribution to its investment programme. Peter Ford has been an untiring advocate for London Transport, and his contribution to thinking and debate about the future has been significant. I am grateful to him, and wish him well for the future.
The changes I am making will cover the period during which we will be implementing the London Underground Public Private Partnership which I announced last month, and the run up to the creation of the Greater London Authority. I have concluded that the best arrangement will be to move to a new senior management structure. I shall be announcing new appointments to the LT Board in due course. Mr. Brian Appleton, currently non-executive Vice chairman of the LT board, has agreed to act as Chairman until a permanent appointment can be made.