Tributes to engineer who 'revolutionised' Metro
NexusTributes have been paid to a "pioneering engineer" who "revolutionised" a region's public transport network.
Prof Tony Ridley, hailed as the man who masterminded the Tyne and Wear Metro and went on to run transport systems in Hong Kong and London, has died at the age of 92.
The civil engineer was director general of the Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Executive (PTE) from 1968 to 1975 and was part of the team that devised the Metro system and oversaw the start of its construction in 1974.
Nexus, which now runs the network, said without his leadership the project may never have come to fruition.
Managing director Cathy Massarella said: "He paved the way for a system that revolutionised local public transport in North East England.
"It was Tony Ridley and his team who first came up with the idea of taking decaying rail lines and linking them using city centre tunnels and a bridge over the River Tyne."
NexusProf Ridley, originally from Sunderland, later became the first managing director of the Hong Kong Metro system and then managed the London Underground.
"He was a pioneer, who played a huge part in transforming public transport in our region," Massarella said.
"He famously quipped that we'd never get away with building a Metro system, but thanks to his skill and determination that is exactly what did happen."
Ridley, who had studied engineering at Newcastle University, also became president of the Institution of Civil Engineers and an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London.
He died at the end of March.
His colleague Mike Parker, who was Nexus' director general from 1994 to 2006 and worked with Ridley at the London Underground in the 1980s, said: "Tony was the most hard working and demanding boss I ever worked for.
"His enthusiasm was infectious and his contribution to public transport unrivalled."
