Roger Jones - Powermonger!

Here's an interesting one, pop-pickers.  Roger Jones, Chair of GMPTA, has made it onto a list of the 50 most powerful people in the transport industry.  In with a bullet at number 37 in the Transit magazine list, he beats Easyjet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou - something we're sure a lot of people would like to do.

So, what makes ol' Rodge a power figure in British transport?  Well, his lobbying of the government to overhaul the bus industry has no doubt had an impact on the changes we are likely to see with the introduction of Local Transport Bill.  The boldness of the planned congestion-charge scheme and its associated public transport improvements will have gone in his favour too.

Of course, he's a figure of hatred among anti-congestion charge campaigners who suggest Greater Manchester will be brought to its knees by a "toll tax".  Here at Manchester Buses, though, we applaud him and the rest of GMPTA for being brave enough to propose something radical to resolve the  problems facing public, and private, transport in the early 21st Century.