06.08.15
Centro chief executive to step down
Geoff Inskip will be stepping down from the top job at Centro after nearly a decade in charge of the West Midlands public transport body.
He was appointed Centro’s director general in 2006.
Inskip, a regular contributor to RTM, said: “It has been a great pleasure to have led Centro for the last nine years. In particular I have thoroughly enjoyed working with colleagues and friends at local authority partners, transport operators and of course members of the Integrated Transport Authority and the Transport Delivery Committee.”
He praised Centro’s work so far and said: “With the onset of HS2, we are already on course to deliver major extensions to the Midland Metro tram system and the Sprint rapid transit programme, to ensure we have the necessary local connections into HS2.”
He added that the region is now in a “strong position” to take forward its ‘strategic transport plans’ amidst plans to create a West Midlands Combined Authority (WCMA).
WCMA, proposed to be created by April 2016, would absorb the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority (WMITA) and other joint boards into a single body, with Centro being renamed Transport for West Midlands as part of the changes.
According to Inskip, the combined authority will be able to deliver “even more passengers with bus services through the new alliance with operators, extensions to the Metro, the delivery of a Sprint network and the continued roll-out of the Swift card and smart travel information.”
Wolverhampton’s Cllr Roger Lawrence, chair of the WMITA, said of Inskip: “He has demonstrated an impressive track record of delivering major transport regeneration and passenger service improvements across the West Midlands.
“In particular, he’s helped us to secure a number of high-profile and much-needed schemes from central government which have helped transform the public transport infrastructure across our area.
“These have included New Street Station, the Wolverhampton and Stourbridge interchanges, a new fleet of Class 172 trains, the Swift smartcard and the Metro extensions programme.”