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 operatio ...

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

Portsmouth Grammar School The Portsmouth Grammar School is a co-educational independent day school in Portsmouth, England, located in the historic part of Portsmouth. It was founded in 1732 as a boys' school and is located on Portsmouth High Street. History In 1732, ...

, and served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

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 defence electronics, communications, and engineering. The company was founded in 1886, was Britain's largest private employer with over 250 ...

, 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, with a reputation of being able to save transit systems experiencing serious problems. From 2001 to 2006 he was the initial Commissio ...

in 2001 who was appointed by

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

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 i ...

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 was ...

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), government agency formed in 2017, responsible for managing extensions to Perth ...

and

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

, 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. 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 and its associ ...

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