Sir Malcolm Rowland Bates (23 September 1934 - 30 May 2009) was a British industrialist. He served as the chairman of

London Regional Transport London Regional Transport (LRT) was the organisation responsible for most of the public transport network in London, England, between 1984 and 2000. In common with all London transport authorities from 1933 to 2000, the public name and operation ...

from 1999 to 2003. Bates was born in Portsmouth, attended

Portsmouth Grammar School The Portsmouth Grammar School (PGS) is a co-educational Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school in Portsmouth, England, located in the historic part of Portsmouth. It was founded in 1732 as a Single-sex education, boys' school ...

, and served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

from 1956 to 1958. In 1976 he joined

General Electric Company The General Electric Company (GEC) was a major British industrial conglomerate involved in consumer and Arms industry, defence electronics, communications, and engineering. It was originally founded in 1886 as G. Binswanger and Company as an e ...

, rising up to become the deputy managing director, a position he remained in for twelve years. He led a group of three businessmen in advising the government on the structure of the planned public-private partnership for the London Underground, and replaced Peter Ford as the chairman of

, who had been against the PPP arrangement. He was replaced by

Bob Kiley Robert R. Kiley (September 16, 1935 – August 9, 2016) was an American public transit planner and supervisor known for his ability to rehabilitate transit systems experiencing serious problems. From 2001 to 2006 he was the initial commissioner ...

in 2001 who was appointed by

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...

to oversee the implementation of the PPP, however following Kiley's firing amid repeated clashes with the

Transport Secretary The secretary of state for transport, also referred to as the transport secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport. The incumbent is ...

Stephen Byers Stephen John Byers (born 13 April 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wallsend between 1992 and 1997, and North Tyneside from 1997 to 2010. He served in the Cabinet from 1998 to 2002, and w ...

regarding the PPP arrangement, he was reappointed as chairman, a position he served in until 2003. Under his second stint as chairman, he passed the £16 billion PPP proposal, with London Underground remaining a public company running the trains while private companies,

Metronet Metronet may refer to: * Metronet (British infrastructure company), who maintained London Underground infrastructure between 2003 and 2008. *Metronet (Western Australia) Metronet (styled METRONET) is a multi-government agency in Western Austral ...

and

Tube Lines Tube Lines Limited, initially known as ''Infraco JNP'' (an amalgamation of infrastructure and company), was an asset-management company responsible for the maintenance, renewal and upgrade of the infrastructure, including track, trains, signals ...

, were responsible for upgrading the railway. He was awarded a knighthood in 1998. He resigned as Chairman of London Regional Transport on 15 July 2003, as the organisation was succeeded by

Transport for London Transport for London (TfL) is a local government body responsible for most of the transport network in London, United Kingdom. TfL is the successor organization of the London Passenger Transport Board, which was established in 1933, and His ...

. Metronet later collapsed in 2008, costing the UK Government £2 billion, and Tube Lines was bought out in 2010. The National Audit Office found that "there was limited assurance that the price of the three Tube PPPs was reasonable", and following the collapse of Metronet the arrangement was heavily criticised in the press. In 2010, the

Transport Select Committee The Transport Select Committee is a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee is to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Transport The D ...

found that the PPP was "flawed" and failed to provide "value for money".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Malcolm 1934 births 2009 deaths People associated with transport in London Businesspeople from Portsmouth 20th-century English businesspeople

See also

References