Top Jobs

In spite of the recession, there are still a number of plumb jobs out there. You no longer need to subscribe to a trade journal to see them. Indeed, with Transit no longer fortnightly (where the best industry jobs were once advertised), journal subscription isn’t essential at all. It’s all on the web under Jobs for Transport, itself part of Landor, which includes New Transit.

Here you will find an advert for TfL’s managing director—surface transport. This follows the departure next year of David Brown to Go Ahead. You have tomorrow to complete your TfL application. Unlike most public sector jobs, the salary’s negotiable and not published. The advert talks of red routes, coaches, river traffic and cycling. Not to mention the largest urban bus network in the British Isles. “Only in London do the functions required to achieve this exist within a single organisation.”

Now, that’s significantly different to elsewhere in Britain. It wasn’t always thus, of course. Between 1974 and 1986, this was the function of each of the metropolitan counties, when the PTEs and PTAs were part of each county council structure. The first four PTEs of 1968 reported to PTAs that were separate. The Mets were abolished in 1986 and, of course, the PTE operating companies became arms length six months later. The new Local Transport Act 2008 inspired integrated transport authorities have more power than the previous PTAs but in the provincial deregulated market they’re not integrated anything like in London though, no doubt, they aspire to be.

Considering the British Isles as a whole, it isn’t “only in London” that the functions come together in such a way. One such city is Dublin. Here is a second interesting position, as the director of public transport services for the south’s capital. Somewhat differently to the London job, as well as integrating transport in the greater Dublin area, the post has certain functions beyond the Dublin Met area to include all of the Irish republic. This would be like TfL’s MD having responsibility for regulating and contracting bus services over the whole of England. There’s a thought. And presumably within the remit would fall the need to modernise the bus service we associate with rural Ireland, a kind of time warped Ballykissangel-type 1970s operation exclusively using 1970s Leyland Leopards with Marshall bodywork.

Closing date is a week on Friday and the salary equates to a sumptuous £125,000 though payment is in Euros and that fact alone must surely be a bit of a disadvantage right now.

Other jobs include an interesting one as regional director for Rotala based in Bristol (closes a week on Friday) and a transport manager for East Cheshire council, a new unitary that has budded off from Cheshire. Reports of sweeping transport changes there will offer interesting challenges and will not dampen enthusiasm for a post attracting a salary of over £60,000. Closing date is on Friday. There’s also a network planning manager at Reading Buses at £40,000 plus, closing on the same day. It refers to Reading as in the “elite band of municipally owned bus service operators”. Rumours some while ago of Reading leaving that “elite band” were quashed.