Afternoon:
15°c
Tube chief quits £450,000 job
Dick Murray and Katharine Barney25.02.09
THE man in charge of running the Tube has quit after six years, despite Mayor Boris Johnson's pleas for him to stay.
American Tim O'Toole is to return to the US at the end of April. The search for a successor to the £450,000-a-year London Underground chief is under way.
Mr O'Toole, who was also asked to stay by Transport for London commissioner Peter Hendy, said the pressure of living away from his wife and two grown-up children was too much. His wife, Patricia, no longer wanted them to live apart and was unwilling to move to London.
But there were immediate fears the 53-year-old was going because he did not agree with policies set out by the Mayor - particular over plans to cut 1,000 Tube jobs to save money.
Today Mr O'Toole said: "I am sad to leave LU but after six years in London it is time to go home.
"LU's customers and employees can look forward to the continuing transformation of the Tube with the delivery of major projects between now and the London 2012 Games.
"I am particularly proud that LU employees have achieved record operating results and all-time high levels of customer satisfaction in this past year. I shall always be grateful for the privilege of being part of such a great institution."
Mr Johnson said he was sad to see MrO'Toole go, but understood his reasons.
"Tim is a great guy and we really want him to stay but his wife and family are still in America and being 3,500 miles away from them has understandably become too much," he said.
Mr Johnson posted a message on his networking site Twitter which said: "Will miss Tim O'Toole. Great man but transatlantic relations must surely be pretty tough. Good luck mate."
Mr Hendy said: "Tim has led LU to its highest levels of performance while carrying record numbers of passengers - all at a time of great change as billions are invested to improve the Tube.
"His leadership was exemplified by getting London moving again so quickly after the terrorist attacks of July 2005. We will greatly miss him as a colleague and I will miss him as a friend."
Mr O'Toole was awarded an honorary CBE in recognition of London Underground's response to the 7/7 attacks, which killed 52 people.
The hunt for a successor will concentrate on finding another external candidate to run the Tube. Mr O'Toole's deputy is Richard Parry, but insiders say he is unlikely to be offered the position. Transport for London, parent company of the Tube, will advertise for an outside candidate rather than promote internally.
Although his resignation was sudden his going is not unexpected. His family has never stayed and settled in London, in contrast with fellow American Bob Kiley, the former transport commissioner who loved the capital's social life. Mr O'Toole chose to commute from his American home and wife Patricia, son Charlie and daughter Elizabeth.
A former US freight train chief whose company, Conrail, used to carry cattle, the Tube was his first attempt at running a passenger railway. He frequently referred to London Underground as the "railroad".
Mr O'Toole was also liked as a "straight-talking guy" by staff.
Reader views (22)
Jacqueline, Hampstead.
I feel very sorry for you. You sound like a very angry woman which has nothing to do with LU or Mr O'Toole.
Everything that Ian Bartlett, Chesham, says is spot on. Mr O'Toole is leaving because of Boris Johnson whose ultimate plan would have been to remove Mr O'Toole just as he did with Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair.
Another reason why Boris Johnson is wholly unsuitable as Mayor.
Mr O'Toole's departure really is a disaster for London.
- Rose, London
I'll do a better job than him for half the salary.
- Roger Slade, Winchester, Hampshire, England
Good riddance for such a failure. A failed product of the previous scandal-ridden Livingstone period. London rejoices the (expensive experiment) departure!
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London
So, 'all time high levels of customer satisfaction'. Where did that come from? Certainly not from me or anyone I know - the long-suffering ones who see a deteriorating service.
My hope is that O'Toole's replacement might look at middle-management overstaffing and inefficiency - seemingly the curse of all large bureaucratic organisations. He or she might also and try and instill a 'can do' attitude in station staff who seem only too keen to shut stations because of the smallest problem. This 'washing their hands' of the problem and the transference of it from them to us is the height of laziness.
- Allanm, Romford, Essex
What British MD would lower himself to ask the man on the shop floor his views?.O,Toole is a class act and worth every penny of his salary.Lets hope his replacement is a railwayman and not some plank from outside the industry.
- Colin, barking essex
Where do I send my CV?
- Mark, London
Lots of ranting and few facts. It is extremely hard to work as a CEO and hardly ever see your family. As regards the tube, it been badly neglected for 100 years and the Unions as usual block change at every turn. Not all LU employees are like this but enough are to make this an unmanageable monster. The private versus public debate is irrelevant because the scale of capital investment required to really bring the tube up to 21st Century standards is just too awesome to fund. Instead upgrades are on a needs must basis. It is easy ti gut a system and renew it when its not running 20 hours a day but if you have to mainatin an ongoing service and conduct a wholesale up grade then you are looking at mission impossible irrespective of the money you throw at it.
As regards getting a CEO to run LU for 85K ... har har. When useless oxygen thieves working in the civil service get 250k why should someone do this job for less than 500K?
- James Macleod Ritchie, Oyster Bay Cove
On the 'buddy' thing, I saw O'Toole at Harrow-on-the-hill a few months back. He was, before embarking on a VIP trip, taking time out to talk to a couple of obviously new recruits (I caught one of them saying 'I started five weeks ago..' as I walked past). I'm sure they remember the day they met the MD and feel more part of the team and better valued as a result - this is also a good way to defuse resentment that could lead to Bob Crow and co. having another one of their back-to-the-70s fun days.
He struck me then as a get-out-and-meet-people kind of boss, all too rare a thing. We'll miss him. The Tube's not perfect, but it's still a great system and it's not Tim O'Toole's fault that it was underinvested in for most of the last sixty years. He did what he could and did it well.
- Tom, London, UK
- Train Operator, London
" I had this conversation with him last 2006 January. He is not only my "Buddy" but also my good Boss & he is a good family man."
Yeh I see all by buddy's every 2 to 3 years!?
- Paul, London
Tim O'Toole is the best manager of public services that London has ever had.
As an employee of London Underground, I am very proud of Tim O'Toole being my Managing Director and I am very sad to see him go.
But I know Tim O'Toole is telling the truth. I had this conversation with him last 2006 January. He is not only my "Buddy" but also my good Boss & he is a good family man. No matter what people will say about Tim, he served with honour, pride & with dignity to the people of London.
He always told us to give our passengers a world class service.
Everybody says "Family comes first". Tim is choosing his family, now some people are criticising him for that, without knowing anything about him.
We should be thankful to Tim as he sacrificed his life to achieve & give our Capital the world class service. Every one of us in LUL knew it would take time. It is not his fault if Metro-net went bust. He has improved the London underground structure and he did excellent. He never wasted public money.
Which company do you hear about their Managing Director calling his employees on a first name basis? Tim O'Toole does that. He is a very approachable Director and a real gentleman.
- Train Operator, London
Lots of emails saying how great Tim O'Toole has been. Can anyone out there expand on what exactly he did that is so note worthy?
- Paul, London
Perhaps they can find someone who doesn't need half a mill to do the job - yeah right!
- Anne, London
Tim O'Toole was a fantastic leader of london underground; and I don't think we will really understand the consequences for a while. But good for him to leave now; when there is time pre Olympics for someone else to get their feet firmly under the table and things happening correctly.
- Jc, se1
It does appear that those working for Boris either have to step down for what seem to be dubious reasons or they wish to leave because of the mayors policies or actions.
- Mike Melbourne, Bedford England
Oh dear, "panic stations", what can we do, only a population of 60,000,000 people in the UK, I know, let's get another foreigner in....DOUGH!
What a buntch of twits, there are thousands of well qualified people in the UK who would do a better job at just £85,000 per year.
No one is worth £450,000.00 per year, only an idiot politician (RED KEN) would pay that sum in the first place.
- George, Bexleyheath
John Billam, the Underground was largely built by Americans such as Charles Yerkes and Albert Stanley, so why should it be funny an American runs it now?
- Roy, England
Funny how we have to have an American to run our underground! Why?
- John Billam, London, United Kingdom
It would be interesting to know where these TfL customer surveys are conducted. I certainly cannot understand how Mr O'Toole can claim that LU employees achieved high levels of customer satisfaction when Londoners and commuters alike know how disgruntled most passengers are.
Londoners were told to expect gradual improvements on the rail infrastructure until 2010-12, but unless they meant giant fans and an ever increasing number of signal failures I for one cannot see what has improved.
Indeed, the only improvements were on their balance sheets and, ok, overground services - - even if many customers still complain of delays. Meanwhile, it costs £4 to travel 1/2 mile on a damp and bacteria infested carriage, and £30/week for a 7-Day travelcard that is usually used for no more than 5 Days.
Thanks a lot.
- Luis, London
Tim O Toole stands out as a heavy weight leader in TfL, which has become a bloated management bureaucracy that wastes more taxpayers money and employs more expensive management consultants than average for UK public sector bodies. Come on Boris and sort TfL out!
- Mike, london
I bet Ken's loving this.
- Mark Burton, St Ives. Cambs
The tube was created to get people around London quickly and conveniently; its main use has always been to get people to their jobs in the city. It is and has always been vital to the country; no less vital than schools, hospitals, or local council services. It’s been proved over and over again, private companies don’t provide a good service for the tax payer; they run a business interest in profits for shareholders. Any profits should be reinvested to improve the service. We the tax payer are instead waving goodbye to any profits and instead pay out for any the improvements from the tax we pay. You can couple this with the money we have already spent on bailing out these mismanaged train companies, example - Rail Track.
Tim O'Toole has already been given millions to do basically nothing, so good riddance to him. The only way forward is to renationalise the rail and tube system, so it is once again self-sustaining. How the government can still argue that privatisation of essential services works is a laughing matter; only problem they now want to sell what left of our postal service.
- Paul, London
This is appalling news and I'm sure it has nothing to do with family reasons. Tim O'Toole is one of the best managers of public services that London has ever had. For Boris Johnson to have lost him says everything you need to know about him not being fit for the role of London Mayor. How on earth could he allow this to happen? I can't convey here just how angry I am about this - it's a disaster for London.
- Ian Bartlett, Chesham, UK
