What was the big news in London Transport 50 years ago?
The place to find out was London Transport Magazine, the monthly staff journal packed with features and articles about operations, services and members of staff.
What's more I have a copy of the October 1972 edition, cover price two pence, so we can delve back and see exactly what was going on. I'm not sure why it was on sale to the public, but I remember seeing it in the ticket window at Croxley station and managing to persuade my parents to buy a copy. "This'll keep the precocious kid busy for a while," they probably thought, little thinking I'd still have my hands on it fifty years later. My thanks to Dad for helping me scan several of the pages.
The cover story was about the introduction of minibuses to the streets of Enfield. [scan]
First mini-bus service runs like clockwork
London Transport's first mini-bus service between Southgate and Enfield came into service as "smooth as clockwork" last month. And the passenger loadings on the 16-seater buses in the first few days were well up to expectation. "We could not have wished for a better start," said deputy area traffic manager Mr Bert Wood. The mini-bus route, known as W9, runs from Southgate Underground station to Enfield, serving two hospitals and two railway stations. It was due to be joined last week by the second of four experimental routes - the P4 which links Dulwich and Brockley Rise with Brixton (Victoria line) station.
The other two experimental minibus routes were the B1 (New Eltham → Bickley → Bromley North) and the C11 (Archway → Cricklewood). The W9 was intended to be a hospital service, the B1 and P4 explored the market for public transport in areas of high car ownership and the C11 served low demand inner suburban streets. These minibuses could be flagged down on demand - the precursor of today's Hail and Ride services. A flat fare of 10p was charged, to be dropped into a perspex box (as modelled in the magazine by passenger Ann Quest). LT weren't expecting the services to run a profit, but a measure of the success of the experiment is that all four routes still operate today (the B1 tweaked to become the 314).
The big news on the tube was the opening of Pimlico Underground station. [scan]
A line or two about 'passports' to Pimlico
The travelling public can now buy London Transport's version of a 'passport' to Pimlico from any one of the 278 stations on the Underground system. And business from the capital's newest station was extremely brisk in the first few days. "We have sold quite a lot of season tickets, and many people who used to get off the train at Victoria are now coming through to Pimlico," said acting chief clerk Cyril Sexton. Pimlico, last station on the Victoria line in the foreseeable future, was opened by Councillor John Guest, Lord Mayor of Westminster... who said he hoped the people who used the station would appreciate the design and cleanliness and would not scatter litter about.
Other guests at the opening ceremony included the leader of the GLC, representatives from the Department of the Environment, contractors and trade unions. Everyone photographed across the double page spread is male apart from Janet Herbert, described as 'pretty as a picture' as she poses in front of the tiled station motif in mini skirt and heels. Rather more progressively, the black man pictured being introduced to the Mayor is station inspector Reginald Arthur. We'll come back to what the editorial staff thought about women later in the magazine.
The other tube news, appropriately enough, was a major engineering project at Bond Street station. [scan]
600-ton jigsaw is put together by numbers - in Oxford Street.
There's nothing unusual about a 300-piece jigsaw, but when it's made of steel and weighs something in the region of 600 tons it becomes something really special. The mammoth task of assembling this massive steel deck in Oxford Street over the summer Bank Holiday was achieved without any delays and needless to say, there were no missing pieces to the jigsaw. The deck now carries Oxford Street traffic over the site while Bond Street station ticket hall is enlarged to handle the eight million extra passengers expected to use the station when the Fleet line opens. The "umbrella", completed twelve hours ahead of schedule, will allow the work to go ahead without seriously affecting the flow of traffic and access to premises.
When you think how long the Crossrail debacle at Bond Street has gone on, it's amazing that fifty years ago engineers managed to raise the height of Oxford Street in 56 hours flat. The photographs show a pesky leaking gas pipe (the only problem that held things up), a team of steel erectors (wearing no health and safety gear whatsoever) and a Routemaster crossing the steel deck at 6.30am on Monday morning (back in the days when route 15 went to Ladbroke Grove). The text in the article manages to be upbeat and congratulatory without resorting to the backslapping hyperbole common to press releases written 50 years later, so not everything's changed for the better.
• A Red Arrow bus with a difference is MBA 588. It has been chosen for a three-month trial in a new livery which, if successful, could be adopted by all Red Arrow buses in central London.
• The biggest single-span concrete bridge on the Underground was slid into place last month between Chigwell and Roding Valley stations. The 152-feet span carries the Central line tracks over the London to Cambridge M11 motorway which is now being built.
• Two more bus lanes have been approved by the Greater London Council, who plan to have nearly forty open by the end of the year. The latest pair of bus-ways to help our services are planned for Kensington Gore and Kensington Road/Kensington High Street.
• London Transport has played a part in the creation of San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART), which opened its first section to passenger traffic last month.
• Colour postcard views of London Transport buses and trains are now available to members of the public from our travel enquiry offices. The 24 cards can be purchased individually at 5p each or six for 25p.
• Once there was one... now there are ten (or nearly!). These are the all-over advertisement buses. Two more have entered service in recent weeks, and a third is planned to make its debut on service 15 this week.
I'll delve further into the October 1972 edition of London Transport Magazine later in the week, when we'll discover more about doughmaking, prize-winning chrysanthemums, concessionary fares and polyester bra dresses.
