I'm surrounded by people at parties fascinated by my job, says transport minister

Yahoo

12-02-2025

Rail minister Lord Peter Hendy has said he is surrounded by fascinated guests at parties whenever he mentions that he works in transport.
The minister said he is the centre of attention at social occasions, with party-goers desperate to know how the London Underground works.
'What you and I know is that once you admit that you work in a transport industry, you're never on your own at a party, are you?' said Lord Hendy, who joined the then London Transport as a graduate trainee in 1975.
'You know, you're surrounded by people who say 'why does the Northern line run the way it does? Why doesn't the Piccadilly line stop at Turnham Green except in the evenings and on Sundays?'
'If you can say a bit about it, they're even more interested because these are big, complex systems.
'We don't make as much of that as we should. The people who work in transport are absolutely fascinating,' he told the Lunch with Leon podcast, which is run by former Transport for London bigwig Leon Daniels.
Later in the podcast, Lord Hendy said 'I'm a bit on the spectrum' while speaking about the recruitment of railway timetable planners.
Describing a conversation between himself and Phil Swallow, a fellow London Transport Museum trustee, the minister said people who are 'neurologically diverse' are actively sought out by transport companies for specialised jobs.
'[Mr Swallow] said to me, 'why do you assess people who are going to compile railway timetables in the same way as you assess people who work in an office?' And I said I don't know.
'The result is that we look for people to compile railway timetables who are neurologically diverse, but who have minds that can cope with numbers,' the peer said.
'I can just about do it because I'm, you know, I'm a bit on the spectrum – and you might be too, but not in the way that you can get somebody who can compile the West Coast Main Line timetable.
'And that needs a degree of human intervention in it, and it needs people whose brains will make that work. I think it's so fascinating to find an industry that can embrace all those things,' he added.
The rail minister's career has given rise to several eyebrow-raising moments over the years.
Last year, a former City Hall source who worked with Lord Hendy described him to The Telegraph as 'an iron fist… without any of the velvet glove' and as someone who 'knows how to handle senior political figures'.
The peer was also involved in controversy last year over the sacking of Gareth Dennis, a rail engineer who publicly commented on overcrowding and safety concerns at the Network Rail-run Euston station.
Lord Hendy was accused of threatening to withhold lucrative contracts from Systra, the engineering firm which employed Mr Dennis until its bosses agreed to 'deal with' the engineer.
Around a decade ago, he described train ticket inspectors as being 'like the Gestapo' who 'fine everyone they can', later apologising for the unflattering comparison.
Before that, it also emerged that the former TfL Commissioner had been having an affair with a sex worker who he showered with pre-loaded Oyster travel passes.
The 71-year-old owns and drives a classic red Routemaster bus which is rumoured to be seen parked outside the Department for Transport's Westminster headquarters on special occasions.
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