History
The first PTEs and PTAs were established in the late 1960s by the Transport Act 1968 as transport authorities serving large conurbations, by the then transport minister Barbara Castle. Prior to this, public transport was run by individual local authorities and private companies, with little co-ordination. The PTEs took over municipal bus operations from individual councils, and became responsible for managing local rail networks.
The 1968 Act created five PTE/As. These were:
- West Midlands on 1 October 1969
- SELNEC (South East Lancashire North East Cheshire) on 1 November 1969 (now Greater Manchester)
- Merseyside on 1 December 1969
- Tyneside on 1 January 1970 (now Tyne and Wear)
- Greater Glasgow on 1 June 1973 (now Strathclyde)
Initially they covered slightly different areas to the ones they cover today. Local government in England was re-organised in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972. The re-organisation created the six metropolitan counties, and the existing four English PTEs were named after, and made to match the borders of the new counties (for example West Midlands PTE was expanded to take on Coventry and Tyneside PTE expanded to include Sunderland becoming Tyne and Wear PTE in the process). In addition to this, two new PTEs were created for the newly established metropolitan counties of South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire.
The 1974 reorganisation also abolished the PTAs, and their role was taken over by the Metropolitan county councils (MCCs). However when the MCCs were abolished in 1986, the PTAs were re-created.
Local government re-organisation in Scotland in 1975 created the region of Strathclyde, and the existing Greater Glasgow PTE was named after, and made to cover the new region.
Until the mid-1980s the PTEs operated bus services in their areas, but bus deregulation by the Transport Act 1985 forced the PTAs to sell their bus fleets to private operators. They were also stripped of their powers to regulate the fares and timetables of private bus operators.
Read more about this topic: Passenger Transport Executive
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