Passengers, Citizens, Consumers - London Transport 1948-2000

This book tells the story of London's transport during an unexplored era in a novel way. It takes the passengers' perspective to explain fares, services and competitors through a challenging set of arguments, describing the users' experience. To do that, the book approaches London's commuters in the three ways that they have been seen by providers and politicians: as passive passengers, recipients of a service designed for them by experts; as active citizens, prepared to be directly involved in running a municipal system; and as discerning customers with choices about how, where and when they travel. The 1948-2000 period saw these viewpoints move in and out of fashion, and since each was intrinsically linked to politics and represented a complete prescription for how a transport system should work. James Fowler explains what ensued on London's transport, why, and how the hard lessons for Transport for London's later success were learned in the preceding decades.