Tony Ridley

Tony Melville Ridley CBE (10 November 1933 – March 2026) was a British civil engineer and academic. He worked as a design and site engineer in the US and Britain before becoming chief research officer of the highways and transport department of the Greater London Council. He became director-general of the Tyne & Wear Passenger Transport Executive in 1969 where he oversaw the development of plans for the Tyne & Wear Metro. In 1975 he was appointed managing director of the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corporation. Ridley was later chief executive of London Underground, but resigned following the King's Cross fire in 1987 and subsequent publication of the Fennell Report. He was also a director of engineering consultancy Halcrow Fox. He was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers from March 1995 to November 1996.

Early life and education Tony Melville Ridley was born in Castletown, Sunderland on 10 November 1933. He attended Durham School before graduating with a bachelor of science degree from Newcastle University. Ridley's education has also been associated with universities in the United States including Northwestern University, Illinois; the University of California and Stanford University. He was awarded a doctor of philosophy degree for a dissertation on the evaluation of transport investment. Ridley remained in post as director general until 1975 when he was appointed managing director of the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corporation.

He left Hong Kong in 1978 and during the 1980s was chief executive officer of London Underground, but resigned following the King's Cross fire in 1987 and subsequent publication of the Fennell Report. In 1987 Ridley won the Institution Prize of the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation. He was appointed a director of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport in 1991, serving in that role until 1993 and for a later stint between 1999 and 2001. He was a director of Halcrow Fox consulting engineers between 1992 and 2004, of the Major Projects Association between 1995 and 2009 and of the RAC Foundation from 1995 to 2010. He was also Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London in the late 1990s and still maintained an emeritus professorship in the department.

Institution of Civil Engineers Ridley served as president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) from March 1995 to November 1996. He was appointed to the presidency following the death in office of Edmund Hambly. The sale of New Civil Engineer and the institution's specialist engineering magazines to Emap was agreed later that month – though the ICE retained control of its book and journal publications.

Death Ridley died in March 2026, at the age of 92. His death was reported on 29 April.