Tony Ridley obituary

Other lives: Public transport expert who pushed through the Tyne and Wear Metro project

Tony Ridley, who has died aged 92, was known as the father of the Tyne and Wear Metro. A qualified civil engineer, his first major job was head of research in the highways department of the Greater London council (1965-70), but most of his career was in public transport and primarily in underground railways.

After the Labour transport minister Barbara Castle’s 1968 Transport Act created passenger transport executives (PTEs) in the main conurbations outside London to “plan, coordinate and operate public transport”, Tony was appointed – at the age of 35 – the first director-general of the new PTE in Tyne and Wear (now called Nexus), a post he held from 1970 to 1975.

Tony moved quickly (and, critically, faster than any of the other PTEs) to obtain political support and funding for a new – and in those days quite revolutionary – light transit system for the conurbation. As often happened in government, the money ran out, and the Metro project, as the first off the blocks, was the only one that got the funding.

Without Tony, the Tyne and Wear Metro would not have opened in 1980. It was the backbone of the public transport system. Tyne and Wear with its new large bus/metro interchanges allowing commuters to reach those interchanges on the bus and then enter the centres of Gateshead and Newcastle by Metro, as well as integrated ticketing, became the best example of integrated transport in the UK. This was a huge achievement and, for Tony, who was brought up in Sunderland and went to Newcastle University, very special.

In 1975, after construction started on the new Metro, Tony was asked to do something similar in Hong Kong as MD of Hong Kong mass transit railway.

After five years in Hong Kong he was invited by London Transport to take charge of the underground. He held the post for nine years until the disaster at King’s Cross underground in 1987 resulted in his resignation following the publication of the Fennell report, which also led to the resignation of Keith Bright, the chairman of London Regional Transport. He also served for 18 months as managing director of Eurotunnel and played a major role in negotiations with the private sector for contributions to the construction of the Docklands Light Railway.

Tony then went back to academia, becoming professor of civil engineering at Imperial College (1991-99), where he mentored numerous engineering students. He was also president of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1994-95.

Born in Castletown, Sunderland, the only child of Olive (nee Armstrong) and John Ridley, Tony attended Durham school, in Durham. He went on to study civil engineering at King’s College, Newcastle, which was then part of the federal University of Durham, but later became Newcastle University. There he met Jane Dickinson, who was studying fine art. They married in 1959.

For a year, 1987-88, I worked directly for Tony at London Underground and I have never had such a demanding boss in my entire career. He was hard-working and his enthusiasm infectious. Later I became director general of the PTE in Tyne and Wear (25 years after Tony) and could appreciate at first-hand his legacy.

Tony is survived by Jane, their children, Sarah, Jonathan and Michael, and six grandchildren.