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Post by busaholic on May 31, 2018 20:58:00 GMT
The Annual Report is always fun reading to see what people get or got paid. Leon was paid the princely sum of £195,393 base salary last year and walked out with an amazing £444,598 as "compensation for loss of employment" of which £277,768 was redundancy payment. I'd love to know what the other nigh on £170,000 was for! He is the second highest paid employee for 2017/18. Only Andrew Wolstenholm of Crossrail earned more but his base salary has been famously high. I have a feeling that, for all his apparent faults, we may come to regard the Daniels years as golden ones from a later perspective. He did know about bus operation from a practical point of view, which is more than can be said of his successor, and obviously cared passionately about the subject. 'Enthusiasts' don't necessarily make good operators, of course (some are way too blinkered and naïve) and, equally, a total non-obsessive can do an excellent job (I have particular examples in mind from my own time with LT) but, overall, I think he performed well, admittedly helped by the political and financial climate then pertaining to bus operation in London. How much he could have done without his friend Peter Hendy in place for most of his time remains hypothetical!
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Post by snoggle on May 31, 2018 22:48:14 GMT
I have a feeling that, for all his apparent faults, we may come to regard the Daniels years as golden ones from a later perspective. He did know about bus operation from a practical point of view, which is more than can be said of his successor, and obviously cared passionately about the subject. 'Enthusiasts' don't necessarily make good operators, of course (some are way too blinkered and naïve) and, equally, a total non-obsessive can do an excellent job (I have particular examples in mind from my own time with LT) but, overall, I think he performed well, admittedly helped by the political and financial climate then pertaining to bus operation in London. How much he could have done without his friend Peter Hendy in place for most of his time remains hypothetical! Understand your views and broadly agree but I'd add a couple of things. He had a very wide portfolio some of which was very politically charged like taxis, cycling etc. I think he faced an extremely steep learning curve in some of those areas and not because he lacked competence. It was more that events were fast paced, dynamic and marked with repeated tragedy (cyclist deaths being a recurring problem due to the useless "blue paint" Boris bike lanes slapped down on main roads). The vitriol from the taxi trade over traffic issues and Uber was horrific. I've no idea how Leon coped with that. Some of the accusations were incredible. Even the very best person would struggle to keep on top of all of that. I think political pressures (and a very confused policy framework under Boris) led to some disastrous decisions - hugely disruptive road works in several places at the same time. The bus service started to be decline under his tenure and he couldn't do anything about it other than throw money at increased PVRs and we know where that has now got us - an era of decline and service cuts. I realise hindsight is a fine thing but not being able to stop the scrapping of the Bus Priority Unit (axed to save money) was not a good move given it has to be brought back! He also had to introduce and defend the New Bus for London - clearly a Boris manifesto commitment and therefore had to be delivered but what a dreadful (IMO) legacy. (the NB4L fan club doesn't need to intervene at this point - we all know there is a split of opinion!!!) I also think he earned some political enemies at City Hall and with local authorities. He developed a stance of trying to "schmooze" the politicians with a mix of comforting words, a bit of techie stuff and a bit of "sorry we can't do that" when pressured to change the way TfL approached consultation, joint working and actually improving the bus network. I used to play a game of "Leon bingo" whenever he sat down in front of the Transport Committee to see what phrases would he would use. I usually managed to tick off all the regular phrases and remarks. If I was a politician I'd not be happy about having that done to me several times in a row. I was invited to a Bus Forum at City Hall by the Transport Cttee - it was a very instructive session if only to witness how incredibly annoyed and fed up the officials and councillors from the Boroughs were. There were also critical reports from the Transport Cttee on many Surface Transport matters during his tenure. Ok some of that is to be expected - you'll never get a clean slate from politicians who investigate you. However some of it was not good and it took a very long time to make what were much needed changes to actually get good practice in place. I also feel that towards the end he was under great pressure to distance himself from bus matters and I don't feel that has helped. His media presence also declined post May 2016 (last Mayoral Election). It is interesting, coming back to the annual report, that he opted to take severance and what looks to be a "golden goodbye" rather than a straight retirement. That also tells me all was perhaps not well in the last year or so under a very different regime at City Hall. Worth noting that a former Transport Cttee chair suddenly occupied a very powerful political position with huge influence over budgets, spend and policy. Politicians have long memories So certainly not all bad but I feel there were some weaknesses and they didn't stand the test of a change of political regime at City Hall. I should just stress, for the record, that this is based on my sense of things as an outside observer. No one has spilled any beans or revealed any great secrets nor have I spoken with Leon (not that I would betray anything said in confidence). Therefore people should exercise their judgement in reading what I have said and not draw any silly conclusions from what are my musings and observations rather than hard provable facts. And if Leon reads this then I am sure he won't be backward in coming forward to correct any incorrect observations, if he feels that necessary.
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Post by danorak on May 31, 2018 23:02:48 GMT
Worth noting that a former Transport Cttee chair suddenly occupied a very powerful political position with huge influence over budgets, spend and policy. I was at an event that both Leon Daniels and Val Shawcross spoke at. I was in no doubt afterwards who I would prefer to have responsibility for the transport network. I found Val, and the content of her presentation, hugely unimpressive and hope for better from Heidi Alexander.
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Post by busaholic on May 31, 2018 23:29:31 GMT
I have a feeling that, for all his apparent faults, we may come to regard the Daniels years as golden ones from a later perspective. He did know about bus operation from a practical point of view, which is more than can be said of his successor, and obviously cared passionately about the subject. 'Enthusiasts' don't necessarily make good operators, of course (some are way too blinkered and naïve) and, equally, a total non-obsessive can do an excellent job (I have particular examples in mind from my own time with LT) but, overall, I think he performed well, admittedly helped by the political and financial climate then pertaining to bus operation in London. How much he could have done without his friend Peter Hendy in place for most of his time remains hypothetical! Understand your views and broadly agree but I'd add a couple of things. He had a very wide portfolio some of which was very politically charged like taxis, cycling etc. I think he faced an extremely steep learning curve in some of those areas and not because he lacked competence. It was more that events were fast paced, dynamic and marked with repeated tragedy (cyclist deaths being a recurring problem due to the useless "blue paint" Boris bike lanes slapped down on main roads). The vitriol from the taxi trade over traffic issues and Uber was horrific. I've no idea how Leon coped with that. Some of the accusations were incredible. Even the very best person would struggle to keep on top of all of that. I think political pressures (and a very confused policy framework under Boris) led to some disastrous decisions - hugely disruptive road works in several places at the same time. The bus service started to be decline under his tenure and he couldn't do anything about it other than throw money at increased PVRs and we know where that has now got us - an era of decline and service cuts. I realise hindsight is a fine thing but not being able to stop the scrapping of the Bus Priority Unit (axed to save money) was not a good move given it has to be brought back! He also had to introduce and defend the New Bus for London - clearly a Boris manifesto commitment and therefore had to be delivered but what a dreadful (IMO) legacy. (the NB4L fan club doesn't need to intervene at this point - we all know there is a split of opinion!!!) I also think he earned some political enemies at City Hall and with local authorities. He developed a stance of trying to "schmooze" the politicians with a mix of comforting words, a bit of techie stuff and a bit of "sorry we can't do that" when pressured to change the way TfL approached consultation, joint working and actually improving the bus network. I used to play a game of "Leon bingo" whenever he sat down in front of the Transport Committee to see what phrases would he would use. I usually managed to tick off all the regular phrases and remarks. If I was a politician I'd not be happy about having that done to me several times in a row. I was invited to a Bus Forum at City Hall by the Transport Cttee - it was a very instructive session if only to witness how incredibly annoyed and fed up the officials and councillors from the Boroughs were. There were also critical reports from the Transport Cttee on many Surface Transport matters during his tenure. Ok some of that is to be expected - you'll never get a clean slate from politicians who investigate you. However some of it was not good and it took a very long time to make what were much needed changes to actually get good practice in place. I also feel that towards the end he was under great pressure to distance himself from bus matters and I don't feel that has helped. His media presence also declined post May 2016 (last Mayoral Election). It is interesting, coming back to the annual report, that he opted to take severance and what looks to be a "golden goodbye" rather than a straight retirement. That also tells me all was perhaps not well in the last year or so under a very different regime at City Hall. Worth noting that a former Transport Cttee chair suddenly occupied a very powerful political position with huge influence over budgets, spend and policy. Politicians have long memories So certainly not all bad but I feel there were some weaknesses and they didn't stand the test of a change of political regime at City Hall. I should just stress, for the record, that this is based on my sense of things as an outside observer. No one has spilled any beans or revealed any great secrets nor have I spoken with Leon (not that I would betray anything said in confidence). Therefore people should exercise their judgement in reading what I have said and not draw any silly conclusions from what are my musings and observations rather than hard provable facts. And if Leon reads this then I am sure he won't be backward in coming forward to correct any incorrect observations, if he feels that necessary. Thank you for that, I found it very interesting. It's very difficult for me to reconcile that with my own experience at LT, not just because the latter was so long ago, but because at the time we had no input from our supposed political masters at the GLC, which would have been seen as 'interference' by so many of my colleagues but that I saw as being important. The trouble is the pendulum never balances, but swings too far the other way.
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