One week to go till the government’s comprehensive spending review. We’ll then know what’s happening to transport. The very last paragraph of current routeONE’s “Westminster Watch” column reads as follows:
“I hear Neil Scales is being tipped that he may be the next permanent secretary at the DfT”There’s apparently a vacancy, or soon will be. Scales is chief executive of the Merseytravel integrated transport authority and director general of the PTE. Could he become the nation’s new top transport civil servant at this crucial time?
If this is more than just a rumour, at one level, does this seem odd? Are Scales’s views balanced? He was at the forefront of the PTEs’ push towards quality contracts. Though MPTE made less noise about it, it was the first of the fold to consider whether it should try for more control. Scales had already wrested control of the Merseyrail electric train set away from Network Rail and was thought to be keen to get the buses, as well.
An odd choice, then, if you recall that the Conservative arm of the coalition (if not the Liberals) wanted none of that QC nonsense. Even more odd, given Scales is currently chairman of industry arch-enemy The P.T.E.G. But these days, there’s a thawing, a rapprochement.
The government wants more co-operation between operators and local transport authorities and this is very much on the current Scales agenda on Merseyside, it seems. Partnership is the government’s and MPTE’s balanced way forward.
So, at another level, Scales is your man. He a big hitter, takes no prisoners, pulls no punches, works incredibly hard, fights for public transport and is the very glue that cements Merseytravel together. Of all the directors general, there is no personality so linked with his organisation than Scales to Merseytravel. It would be hard to imagine him anywhere other than at Hatton Garden (even if MPTE is about to move somewhere towards Mann Island by the river). But Marsham Street is certainly conceivable. And unlike most of his predecessors, he would be far more visible and noticeable.
Additional information from Omnibuses’ Northern Correspondent
2 comments:
It has been suggested by Westminster watchers that the DfT is likely to give Norman Baker free reign over buses, as the Tories attempt to be seen to be moveable on some, less costly policies which are at odds with Liberals. To infer further, I think in the scheme of things, allowing to PTEs to enforce QPs is but a tiny victory in the scheme of things.
Neil really wanted to be DG at Wear & Tear, not Miserytravel, so it is actually quite easy to imagine him somewhere else. Bit hard to imagine him as a senior civil servant, though.
Post a Comment