Fond of advertising itself as ‘London Transport at London’s Service’, London Transport was a bi-modal road and rail monopoly which also exercised control over the revenues of the mainline railway companies. To its credit, for the first time, it gave London a highly integrated public transport service, with a standardised fares structure, albeit one based on railway costs rather than the much cheaper buses and trams. The buses and underground trains it specified were for many years if anything over-designed, but comfort, quality and durability was there and London buses didn’t rattle! On the downside, it was inflexible, intolerant of anything that smacked of competition, bureaucratic and, of course, the people it was meant to serve, the passengers, were at the mercy of the trade unions representing its employees.
That London Transport was a complete monopoly and wielded considerable authority far beyond the area of the London County Council or that of the Metropolitan Police can be judged by the way it was treated by legislation. In 1933, regulation of passenger transport extended to bus and coach services. Each bus or coach route had to have a road service licence, and after a period during which ‘grandfather rights’ enabled existing operators to retain their services, new routes had to face scrutiny by the traffic commissioners, and other interested parties could object, including other bus operators or even the railways. London Transport was exempt from this procedure, and other operators could not operate bus services in its area without its permission, and those whose services crossed into the LPTB area had to have a ‘backing’ licence.
The new London Passenger Transport Board eventually settled on the roundel with a bar through it as its logo, adopting a symbol used by the Underground companies from as early as 1909. Even so, some early advertisements show LPTB in a form of sloping figure of eight, with lines intended to demonstrate speed. Others show London Transport with a heraldic griffon placed between the two words.