Lorenzo of the Underground
1979; Routledge; Volume: 5; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1179/ldn.1979.5.1.113
ISSN1749-6322
Autores Tópico(s)Transport and Economic Policies
ResumoBENEATH the smog and the traffic jams, cheerful, colourfully-dressed people glide down escalators, through clean white tunnels and in sleek silent bright , carriages are carried to every corner of the city. Their motion is effortless; there are no delays. This was the vision of travel as it might be, not a daily inconvenience, but a means to a richer life and itself a spiritual and uplifting experience. And such it was hoped London's Underground railways might become, a transport system fit for the celestial city. In spite of the present realities of staff shortages, dirt and mechanical failures, one can still glimpse the optimism as one stands in the faded glory of a suburban Piccadilly line station; and it is still true that of all the transport systems in the world, London's came closest to realising that dream of celestial perfection. Much of the character of London Transport was due to the dedication of one man in particular, Frank Pick, who between 1906 and 1940 managed successive parts and ultimately the whole of London's transport system. The centenary of his birth was 'celebrated at the Victoria & Albert Museum by a small exhibition organised jointly by the Museum and London Transport. Called Teaspoons to Trains, it covered his'interest in design both in his official capacity as manager of London Transport, and in his personal support of the Design and Industries Association.* 'London Transport as we know it today was formed out of the many different underground railway, bus and tram companies that were merged with the Underground Electric Railway Company of London (UERL) between 1912 and 1933 under the chairmanship of A. H. Stanley (created Lord Ashfield in 1920). In 1933, the combine became a public corporation, the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB). The very remarkable story of the mergers and the ultimate formation of the LPTBis told by T. C. Barker and Michael Robbins in volume two of their History of London Transport, published in 1974. Pick joined the UERL in 1906 and from 1912, as commercial manager and subsequently managing director, had the job of making this miscellany of companies work. Pick's own view was that the whole of London's transport should be run as one united operation, under a single management, a goal which was partly though not fully achieved with the LPTB. While it was Ashfield who engineered the mergers and made the ideal of a single management possible, it
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