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.
