In collaboration with University of Westminster’s Active Travel Academy, climate charity We Are Possible have published a report detailing pathways to achieving an inclusive low-car city. It explores the problems experienced by disabled people in our cities, and the impacts of the low-car transition on disabled people. The report's findings translate into a set of specific policy recommendations outlined at the end of this report. With transport accounting for 27% of the UK’s greenhouse gas em

The fourth Cycling and Walking Innovations event will highlight why boosting cycling and walking is a win-win, because it is politically more supported than ever and the benefits are visible in quality of life, the environment and local economies. The 2017 DfT Innovation Challenge Fund was the catalyst for the first Cycling and Walking Innovations event in 2018, which was launched to celebrate the innovators – from the private and public sectors – who are driving the active travel s

Public bodies and transport operators must do more to enable people with mental health conditions to make journeys, states a new report. An online survey by the UCL’s Centre for Transport Studies revealed the main barriers for people mental health issues. Of the 385 respondents, 90% have anxiety issues, 71% suffer from panic attacks, 68% have depression while 51% have difficulty communicating and 45% have memory loss. The survey was supported by a range of organisations including Sustrans

In creating safer street design for cycling and walking, junctions consistently prove to be the greatest challenge for many designers and engineers. Dutch transport consultancy Mobycon

The Mini-Holland programme was the turning point for Waltham Forest, giving the council the means to challenge the dominance of the car, believes Clyde Loakes. The £29.6m grant from TfL changed everything. Up until then, the council had tried to encourage active travel through a range of small-scale measures, says Loakes, the council’s Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Transport and the Environment.  “Yes, we had the traditional traffic calming engineering solutions, b

The Landor LINKS Annual Survey of Mobility as a Service is now in its third year. Whatever sector of transport you work in, MaaS is now having an impact either as a planner, providing public transport, bike share, car hire, leasing, payments, operational support, TRANStech. We'd like to hear from you, so please complete the survey to gauge how MaaS – and our hopes and fears for it – are developing. Take part in the survey today Last year we had more interest from the automotive se

A tech firm that deploys cameras and machine learning software to analyse the movement of people and traffic has received £25,000 from the North East Small Loan Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund. Newcastle-based Streets Systems says the funding will enable it to acquire more equipment as well as increasing its workforce and extending its client base. The firm, set up by Tom Bailey and Tom Komar, uses sensors to gather in-depth data on pedestrian and cycle movement

A new guide packed with useful information about the Mini-Hollands and Liveable Neighbourhoods programmes has been published. The 64-page guide, published by Landor LINKS in partnership with Transport for London, includes a round-up of all the Liveable Neighbourhoods projects being developed across the capital. Building on the success of Mini-Hollands, the Liveable Neighbourhoods Programme will use the Healthy Streets Approach to deliver attractive, healthy, accessible and safe neighbourhoods.

Free bike hire is being offered to patients in Cardiff to help improve their health.  The pilot scheme, led by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, is aimed at people with Type 2 diabetes, and those who are overweight or suffering from low mood, anxiety and depression. The health board says the pilot is a first for the UK. Initially it will run at two GP practices, offering a free six-month membership to the city’s bike hire scheme, operated by Nextbike.  Tom Porter, a co

Living Streets started life as the Pedestrians Association, a charity launched in 1929 by the journalist Tom Foley OBE and Nobel Peace Prize winner Viscount Cecil of Chelwood. During the 1930s the charity played an influential role in the introduction of the first Highway Code, the driving test, the 30mph speed limit in built-up areas and zebra crossings. The Pedestrians Association became Living Streets in 2001 and now runs the annual Walk to School Week and campaigns on issues such as the dan

Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, has celebrated its 90th anniversary by paying tribute to the journalist and diplomat who took the first steps towards making roads better and safer spaces for pedestrians. Thomas Foley was a journalist who worked for a number of London newspapers. Foley loved walking and never learned to drive. Throughout his life he campaigned to improve life for pedestrians as became increasingly concerned about he dangers posed by growing numbers of cars,

Hilary Gander has witnessed a few political twists and turns since the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames secured Mini-Holland funding five years ago. The LibDem council won the £32.7m grant in 2014, but the following year control of the council switched to the Conservatives. Then, at last year’s local elections, the LibDems returned to power. Which means that Gander, as Portfolio Holder for Environment & Sustainable Transport, has been handed the opportunity of shaping the

The Annual Survey of Mobility as a Service is now in its third year. Whatever your work in transport, either as a planner, providing public transport, bike share, car hire, leasing, payments, operational support, TRANStech please complete the survey to gauge how MaaS – and our hopes and fears for it – are developing. Take part in the survey today Last year we had more interest from the automotive sector than public transport – but there are developments coming through now whi

Free bike hire is being offered to patients in Cardiff to help improve their health and wellbeing. The pilot scheme, led by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, is aimed at people with Type 2 diabetes, and those who are overweight or suffering from low mood, anxiety and depression. Cardiff and Vale UHB say the pilot is the first of its kind in the UK. Initially, the pilot will run at two GP practices, Lansdowne Surgery and Fairwater Health Centre, offering a free six-month membership to th

Our contributors to Data & Modelling 2019, and this year’s cohort of speakers at Modelling World, all agree that as technological advances and evolving social trends intersect to drive a period of unprecedented change, data and modelling professionals must raise their game in order to take advantage of new opportunities.  Modellers and data professionals will play a key role in ‘Deciding and Providing’ for our mobility futures. As predatory tech an

As a wheelchair user living just outside Edinburgh in Midlothian who makes about 24-28 journeys a week on Lothian Buses, buses are very important to me. The introduction of the low floor bus over the past 15 years or so has radically transformed my travel options for the better. But as wheelchair access to buses has once again become contentious locally (more on this later) I thought it might be timely to share my reflections on the practical experience of being a regular bus wheelchair passenge

The Blue Badge, Motability and Cycle to Work schemes should be offered to disabled people using bikes, says Sustrans. This would remove some of the barriers to cycling that many disabled people face, believes the walking and cycling charity. “The Blue Badge scheme should be extended so that disabled people can use it with their cycle for better access,” said Tim Burns, Sustrans’ senior policy and partnerships advisor.  A growing number of high footfall city and town cent

Bradford’s new £3.1m Canal Road Cycleway has opened. Providing a missing link in cycling infrastructure between Shipley and Bradford, the cycleway is part of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s £60m CityConnect programme aimed at encouraging more people to travel by bike or on foot.  The 2.3km route runs along Hillam Road, Bolton Lane and Valley Road, ending at Lower Kirkgate, near Bradford Forster Square.  To the north the cycleway links to the existi

The government has launched a competition for 7 to 19 year olds to design the electric vehicle chargepoints of the future, inspiring the next generation of engineers — a key aim of the modern Industrial Strategy. The ‘Eco Innovators’ competition aims to inspire young people to use their creative and engineering skills. Winners will have their designs made into real-life prototypes supported by industry experts. The ‘Eco Innovators’ competition — announced by

Modelling World 2019, 4 & 5 June, Birmingham: Supported delegate places for students Our event partner Jacobs is kindly sponsoring 10 full delegate places for students who are interested in sharing ideas about the key issues to be discussed at Modelling World. Please apply, by 28 May, with a CV and top two preferences for morning and afternoon sessions to: juliana.orourke@landor.co.uk Jacobs will ask all student ambassadors to gather at lunchtime at the event reception desk for a group ph

Right from the moment Enfield became one of TfL’s Mini-Holland boroughs back in 2014, the rumbles of dissent began. Cllr Daniel Anderson, who until recently was the council’s deputy leader, recalls being verbally abused at public meetings: “It’s fair to say we faced considerable opposition. People referred to me - and still do - as the idiot who built the cycle lanes. But I can live with that. If I didn’t believe that it was the right thing to do I wouldn’t ha

Aimsun has a long working history with TfL, and its software is already licensed to TfL through the city’s Strategic Modelling Framework and the Operational Modelling Frameworks, which were put in place back in 2015 and recently extended to 2020. The idea behind this current project is not only to consolidate existing models into an integrated, multi-level platform for modelling the city’s transport — with all the efficiency, consistency and cost reduction that this implies &m

Immense Simulations, the intelligent mobility software provider, today announced that it has secured $4.6m in Series A funding. The investment will aid the continued growth and development of its AI-driven ‘Simulation as a Service’ platform, which is disrupting traditional transportation modelling. The Series A funding was co-led by global technology investor, Amadeus Capital Partners, one of Europe’s most active AI investors according to Pitchbook, and Global Brain Corporatio

The London Borough of Croydon is to consult on introducing traffic restrictions to streets outside eight more primary schools at the start and end of the school day, under its ‘school streets’ initiative.  Shifa Mustafa, Croydon’s executive director for place, said the three pilot school street schemes implemented in 2017 had “significantly reduced car use” for school run trips, in the range 15-25 per cent.  “Parents become educated and socially in

Cracked and uneven pavements make nearly a third of older people feel unsafe when walking on their local streets. The YouGov survey from Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, was released for National Walking Month. Living Streets is calling for councils to remember pavement potholes when repairing their roads to enable the most vulnerable to feel happier and safer using their streets. It is part of Living Streets’ #nine90 campaign which aims to highlight the need for stree

Dockless bike hire firm Mobike has announced that it is pulling out of Newcastle and Gateshead to “increase the sustainability” of its UK business. This follows reports of vandalism - including bikes being dumped in the River Tyne or abandoned elsewhere. The Chinese firm says it will focus on building its UK operations in London, Oxford and Cambridge.  A fleet of 450 bikes was launched in Newcastle in October 2017, with another 500 the following February and a further 200 when

A cycle path between two RSPB nature reserves in West Sussex is now open. The county council’s Public Rights of Way team worked with The Manhood Peninsula Partnership on the scheme.  The route – which connects the Pagham Harbour and Medmerry nature reserves – includes 1.2km of shared pedestrian/cycling pathway and 1.7km of improvements to flood defences at Selsey.  The £400,000 scheme was chiefly paid for by West Sussex County Council, with £58,000 of Se

Borders Buses is introducing new buses on the X62 Edinburgh to Peebles route with capacity for four bikes. Three Enviro400 double deckers have been custom-designed and built by Falkirk-based bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis. Their introduction coincides with Borders Buses offering contactless ticketing across its full network.

Leeds City Council is to procure a public bike hire scheme this summer, one year on from Chinese firm Ofo’s decision to abandon the launch of a dockless scheme in the city. The council wants the initial scheme to have 1,000 bikes. Procurement will commence in early summer with the intention of launching the scheme next spring. Last February the council chose Ofo as its preferred operator for a scheme focused on the city centre and surrounding area (LTT 16 Feb 18). Ofo, however, abandoned

A new paper on the casualty impacts of signed-only 20mph limits in Bristol is being prepared for submission to an academic  journal.  Academics at the University of West of England (UWE) wrote a report on the Bristol experience last year for Bristol City Council. In it, the authors said the signed-only limits had avoided 4.53 fatal, 11.3 serious, and 159.3 slight injuries a year. “Because of the study design employed, it is not possible to state with certainty that the reduction

Graham Pendlebury will be retiring as DfT’s Director, Local Transport on 31 May. His successor will be Stephen Fidler, currently a Deputy Director in DfT’s Strategic Roads Division, with responsibility for overseeing delivery of the Highways England Road Investment Strategy.  Since taking on the role in February 2013, Pendlebury has been responsible for local roads funding and maintenance, bus policy, active and accessible travel, managing about 100 staff and an annual budget o

An ambitious programme to transform the National Cycle Network (NCN) has been launched with the opening of a traffic-free section on the Caledonia Way between North Connel and Benderloch in Argyll and Bute. The new link at Ledaig - funded by Transport Scotland and delivered by the charity Sustrans – has opened after a decade of community and landowner engagement.   It forms part of a £2m investment by Transport Scotland in NCN Route 78 throughout Argyll and Bute and the Highla

I read with interest of the DfT’s regulatory review regarding micromobility vehicles (‘Regulatory reviews to smooth way for new mobility products’ LTT 29 Mar). However, similar machines, in the form of mobility scooters and powered wheelchairs, have been around for years. In view of changing road conditions over time, a full review is really overdue. There is nothing like losing the ability to walk much, if at all, to restrict someone’s ability to get out of their home a

We’re seeing these developments on the ground now, changing the way people travel. Sometimes it’s trial on a small scale with local introductions of new services across a limited area. The flexible on demand driven bus service in launched by Arriva started in an area of Sittingbourne just 4 miles wide and 6 miles long. A single bus route converted by TransDev to ‘pay for how far you travel’ measured by Bluetooth beacons. One Royal Mail depot trialling electric cargo trike

Plans for a ‘Beelines Network’ of cycling and walking routes across Greater Manchester will take another step forward if 18 schemes gain approval next week. This will take the number of endorsed schemes to 42, delivering 319 new and upgraded crossings and junctions and 70 miles of new cycling and walking routes. If the latest schemes are approved by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), the total value of cycling and walking related-projects across Greater Manchester wil

The Big Bike Revival – a project that aims to help people get their unused bikes back on the road – is to take place for the fifth consecutive year. The DfT is giving the charity Cycling UK £1m, double last year’s amount, to stage events across England.  The project offers free cycle checks, maintenance advice and tips on how to get cycling, along with training events to get people cycling again or for the first time. Cycling UK targets people on low incomes, those

The DfT has announced funding of £21m to kick-start a major upgrade of the National Cycle Network (NCN). Plans to improve the quality of the tracks will be managed by the charity Sustrans, which has earmarked an initial 50 ‘Activation Projects’ for completion by 2023. This forms the first stage of Sustran's long-term strategy to improve the network launched last year. The Activation Projects include: • Refurbishing and upgrading Cinder Track North in Whitby, North Yor

Transport for New Homes is asking transport and housing practitioners to help it develop a checklist for avoiding car-dependency in new housing developments. It aims to outline the the various elements that make up a good housing development. Some are obvious: the development should have easy access to direct and frequent bus routes, for instance. Others are often forgotten: cycle routes should not end at the site boundary but should join up with a wider network. Homes should have secure, e

Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP has announced millions of pounds in extra housing funding, along with new planning measures to build thousands of homes, rejuvenate high streets, create jobs and deliver economic growth. The measures are part of a wider strategy to deliver 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. The package will unlock large housing sites with targeted £717 million infrastructure funding, reform parts of the planning system and ensure new-builds are more e

The biggest review into transport in a generation will pave the way for transforming the way people and goods move around our cities, the government has announced in its Future of mobility: urban strategy. Also, in a boost for sustainable transport, the government has announced the first winners of the Transforming Cities Fund and awarded £60 million to 10 city regions for schemes supporting low-carbon vehicles, cycling and walking projects, and smart traffic controls. The Transforming Cit

The removal of a large roundabout in Waltham Forest, north-east London, marks the final phase of the borough’s Mini Holland programme. Waltham Forest was one of three outer London boroughs – along with Kingston upon Thames and Enfield – to receive funding from the then Mayor of London Boris Johnson in 2014 to create cyclist and pedestrian friendly routes. A new T-junction, with signalled crossings for pedestrians and cyclists, and bus interchange (pictured above) has replaced

I have worked in transport, motoring and campaigning for more than 25 years. After seeking fame and fortune in Hollywood, I returned to the UK and worked for the British Road Federation. In the late 1980s I headed up the campaign group East Anglia Roads to Prosperity primarily to campaign for the dualling of the A11 and A47. I still tell my sons every time we drive to Norwich City FC that I helped dual this road. I was also secretary to a campaign group, Movement for London, which then, as now,

Eleven London councils have secured funding for projects to make their streets more people-friendly. The Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL) is providing a total of £53m in the second phase of its Liveable Neighbourhoods programme. Seven boroughs were awarded a total of £33m towards phase one projects in 2017.  TfL received 22 bids for phase two funding. The winning bids comprise a range of projects designed to cut rat running, make junctions safer, implement new wal

A six-week consultation to discuss possible developments around Crewe railway station has been launched by Cheshire East Council.  An action plan is being drawn up to manage development and support the regeneration of the site around the station ahead of HS2’s arrival, scheduled for 2027. This will help identify the most immediate opportunities around the railway station, and ensure that related growth and development is ‘plan-led’, says the council.  The action pl

Phase two of plans to transform Newcastle Central Station and the surrounding land will be considered by the city council next week. The programme would free up more space in concourses within the station, provide additional pedestrian entrances into the station, improve short and long stay parking and move the taxi rank into the existing short stay car park at the front of the station. The works would also pave the way for a new station multi-storey car park, commercial and residential housing

It’s clear that the auto industry has its sights on shared mobility, but in a model that is much closer to Uber and Lyft’s taxi-alternative than true co-mobility or shared modes such as Uber Pool or Lyft Line, which connect potential clients with other passengers with the same route or location. BMW and Daimler have launched a combined car-sharing venture called  ‘Jurbey’ and, under the terms of their deal, reports Automotive News, which includes Daimler's Car2Go and

Local authorities can radically improve their transport system by increasing the use of shared modes, especially active ones, but need operational and regulatory guidance. CoMoUK is supporting local authorities by bringing together stakeholders, including the DfT, to help deliver shared mobility goals, a process that will kick off at the Shared Transport Masterclass in Leicester on 22 February Cities in the UK are on the precipice of an upcoming revolution in the way we provide transport. The p

Bolton station is to receive a £1m overhaul which will see the under-used Victorian building on platforms four and five refurbished in a bid to attract retail, enterprise and community use. The project will include new seating and signage, improved waiting rooms and toilets and pigeon netting to keep the space clean. The work is due to be completed by spring. Key to the transformation is the Bolton Station Community Development Partnership which embraced the project with some great ambiti

The waiting rooms at Leicester station have been refurbished, with new seating, departure screens, and free to use water filling stations for customers. East Midlands Trains has invested over £150,000 to improve facilities for customers using Leicester station including more than 50 seats in each waiting room and 32in departure board screens to make it easier for passengers to check train departures.  Rachel Rundell, Area Manager, Leicestershire for East Midlands Trains, said: &ldqu

Plans for a ‘super hub’ are being drawn up on the site of the Old Oak Common railway depot in north-west London. The high-speed rail station, due to open in 2026, would offer services to the Midlands, Scotland and the North and access to central London and Heathrow via Crossrail. The long-term planning and development of the wider site is being led by the Mayor of London’s Old Oak and Park Royal Development Corporation, which is planning a mixed-use development, with commercia

Advances in technology may provide new opportunities in metropolitan railway finance, says Joseph Potvin, Executive Director, Xalgorithms Foundation It is common knowledge that commercial and residential properties within an easy walk of metropolitan train stations are in relatively greater demand, which tends to be reflected in their significantly higher lease and sale values. This mobility premium has long been the basis for so-called Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) initiatives.&nbs

The government has awarded more than £6 million to support ultra-low emission taxis right across the country, furthering its ambition for a zero emission future. The funding will see almost 300 rapid chargepoints and 46 fast chargepoints installed for ultra-low emission taxis in 17 local authorities, including in Greater Manchester, Brighton and Hove, Leicester and the north east. This announcement marks another milestone in the delivery of the government’s Road to Zero strateg

Shared mobility modes have great potential to address congestion and poor air quality challenges, but the practical delivery of an integrated shared mobility strategy is complex. The Shared Transport Masterclass on February 22 will bring together operators, local authorities and potential mobility users to take the first steps in creating a practical framework, based on 'mobility pledges', that can guide the set-up for successful shared mobility. The mobility pledges are rooted in work tha

UNICEF UK has launched a report into air pollution, including a national call to action and recommended measures for government, in order to urgently reduce levels of air pollutants in areas populated by children. Notes the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, responding to the report: 'Around a third of UK children are growing up in areas with unsafe levels of air pollution and without urgent intervention, toxic levels of air pollution are expected to persist fo

As Unicef published its latest briefing on air pollution, stating that across 86% of the UK, children are breathing in harmful levels of toxic air that can harm their lungs, damage the development of their brains and stunt their growth, new figures from Close Brothers Asset Finance’s quarterly survey of businesses in the UK and Ireland suggest that traffic congestion is reaching crisis point across the UK, affecting both productivi

Waltham Forest council has launched a £20,000 fund to help local community projects encourage more active travel.   Organisations can bid for up to £2,500 from the Community Walking and Cycling Fund to deliver projects with residents in the London borough over this spring and summer.  The council hopes the fund will lead to more community led guided walks or rides as well as bike maintenance classes for community groups.  Funding will come from the £27m Mini H

A project is underway to explore the possibility of re-opening a rail station at Soham in East Cambridgeshire. The new station would help to reconnect the town with the Ipswich to Peterborough line, as well as help improve prospects for economic growth, jobs and investment in the area. The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority has commissioned Network Rail to assess the viability of re-opening the station.  The early design work factors in the potential for a second platform

The end of 2018 and beginning of 2019 have seen a host of consultations, reports and inquiries into why it’s so necessary to boost walking and cycling levels; both through securing long-term investment and fully integrating quality cycling and walking infrastructure with public transport, homes and work. First, the Department of Health and Social Care launched its ‘Prevention is better than cure' vision, which specifically mentions the need to 'coordinate transport, housing, educat

EU partners will continue to work over the next three years to raise the profile of shared transport solutions as part of the SHARE-North project. Speakers from project members CoMoUK and SHARE-North will be speaking at the Shared Transport Masterclass on February 22 in Leicester. The aim of the SHARE-North project is to develop, implement, promote and assess shared transport options such as car clubs, bike share, ride sharing and other shared transport options. CoMoUK will focus on engagi

The NHS will save £319m if cycling doubles in seven UK cities every eight years by 2040, according a new report from Sustrans. The charity calculates that 34,000 life-threatening illnesses - including Type 2 diabetes, stroke, breast cancer and depression - would be prevented, along with 628 early deaths. Transforming Cities: The potential of everyday cycling uses data from Sustrans’ 2017 Bike Life studies of B

Plans have been unveiled for two schemes in Crawley, West Sussex, designed to create better links between the town’s rail and bus stations and improve pedestrian, cycling and bus access and facilities.  The £5.3m Station Gateway project aims to provide a better public space and transport connectivity and improved town centre facilities while the £8.3m Eastern Gateway scheme is designed to deliver better public space and connectivity to support development opportunities at

Construction work has started on a new transport hub in Derry which will serve as a “gateway” to Northern Ireland’s north-west. The plans involve the restoration and refurbishment of the listed station at Waterside.  Funding of around £27m has been secured from the EU’s INTERREG VA Programme with support from the Department for Infrastructure and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in Ireland.  Northern Ireland’s public transport body Tr

Dundee’s new look railway station will help to attract investment in the regenerated Central Waterfront area, says the city council. The £38m station features a new passenger concourse and ticketing facilities as well as a café/restaurant and retail space. The station, designed by Jacobs and local architects Nicoll Russell Studios and built by Balfour Beatty, was the first large-scale building completed in the area. Outside the station building a number of standard hoop styl

A new national planning framework is urgently needed to place public transport, rather than car-based “low density sprawl”, at the heart of policy for new developments, says a new report by the Urban Transport Group. This would enable the “agglomeration” of economies – where firms benefit from close proximity to each other – and meet housing demand without making congestion and air quality worse, according to The Place To

Sheffield City Region has today announced plans to appoint its first Active Travel Commissioner. The post will cover all aspects of active travel schemes to be delivered across the region, as part of Sheffield City Region’s bid for a share of the government's Transforming Cities Fund. Earlier this month, Sheffield City Region submitted six active travel and public transport schemes to the government for co

New roads, bus rapid transit corridors, tram-trains, and light rail extensions all feature in the list of projects to be developed over the next five years to support Greater Manchester’s growth.   Transport for Greater Manchester’s draft delivery plan for 2020-2025 says business cases will be prepared for projects including:  • extending the Atherton branch of the Leigh-Salford-Manchester busway westwards to Wigan • a new road linking the M61 to the new A49 li

Eurotunnel has threatened the Government with legal action over its decision to award contracts to three ferry companies for additional services as part of planning for Brexit on 29 March. The DfT awarded contracts for additional roll-on/roll-off freight services to Brittany Ferries, DfDS and UK start-up Seaborne Freight just before Christmas. Services will operate from the ports of Ramsgate, Portsmouth, Poole, Plymouth, Felixstowe and Immingham. The Government says the services are necessary t

Rail stations are changing, as any traveller who uses Birmingham, Sheffield, London St Pancras or London Bridge stations, will clearly see. They don't feel like stations. They feel like upmarket retail malls and grand food courts with trains (and buses, bikes and taxis) added, imposing city gateways, art exhibits, pianos and, increasingly, the centrepieces of new communities and developments. Stations' evolving role as new 'city centres' is driving development activity, growth and revenue. Gl

Services on Scotland’s railway are becoming more punctual as more drivers and conductors receive training for using new routes and the new class 385 electric trains, says ScotRail. The train operator reports that punctuality is at its best since September, and the performance for period 10 (9 December – 5 January) is better than the same period the previous year. Scotrail says that 84.2% of its services met the rail industry standard public performance measure, arriving at their de

Plans to re-open Goldsborough railway station in North Yorkshire are being spearheaded by the developers of a new village community. Flaxby Park Ltd has acquired Goldsborough’s former station house, and plans to reopen it as a new park & ride station, called Flaxby Parkway Station. Train operator Northern is backing the proposals while Network Rail has stated there are “no significant technical obstacles to the delivery of a new station” at Flaxby. The developer plans to t

A new transport interchange has opened at Newton-le-Willows in Merseyside, featuring a new subway, stairs, lifts, ticket office and improve passenger waiting facilities.  The £18.95m scheme, funded by the Local Growth Fund and Merseytravel, also provides step free access to and between the platforms via the new subway and lifts, a bus interchange adjacent to the new ticket office, and a dedicated drop-off and pick-up area. Parking capacity has increased from 80 to 400 spaces with th

The action plan to turn Crewe railway station into an ‘HS2 hub’ is being refined by Cheshire East Council following a consultation with local residents, landowners and businesses. The hub station will support regeneration for the town and wider region, says the council. The consultation, which ended last month, was carried out to help develop the key planning document for the hub.   As part of the government’s high-speed rail line (HS2) plans, Crewe would link with Greate

Councils should develop and maintain routes that give priority to pedestrians, cyclists and those using public transport over motorised vehicles, NICE [the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence] has stated in a draft quality standard published today. The body calls on planners to develop policies and initiatives to ensure “safe, convenient, inclusive access” for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transport passengers with priority over motorised vehicles such as cars, mot

Plans have been unveiled for a new entrance at Birmingham’s Snow Hill Station, which will make it easier for passengers to switch between local rail and tram services. An image of the new eastern entrance (left) has been released by Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). Independent infrastructure specialist Barhale has been appointed by TfWM to build the £1.5m project. Barhale will construct the entrance beneath the existing brick

On 13 November London’s Evening Standard newspaper published an eight-page supplement in association with Uber dedicated to improving the capital’s air quality by reducing the amount of pollution generated by transport. “London is gearing up for an electric future and The Evening Standard is fully behind the drive to get our city charged up,” the supplement’s introductory article began. “We believe that the answer [to air pollution] lies partly in accelerating

Councils will get new powers allowing the use of CCTV and ANPR cameras to enforce parking restrictions in cycle lanes as part of a government ‘action plan’ to improve road safety for pedestrians and cyclists. The two-year plan, published today, will end the requirement for civil enforcement officers to issue penalty charge notices to vehicles parked in cycle lanes. Among a raft of

Belfast’s Queen’s University has become the first organisation to achieve a Gold Standard in a new international Cycle Friendly Employer accreditation (CFE-UK). The scheme has been launched by EU project ‘Bike2Work’, with the charity Cycling UK the recognised provider for the UK.  CFE-UK is the only international standard for workplace cycling, working in partnership with countries across Europe. Site auditing and advisory work is also provided by charity Sustrans

New rail minister Andrew Jones has challenged train operators to step up their support for community rail projects across the UK as he launches the 2018 Community Rail Strategy. Last week Jones returned as the transport minister responsible for rail after the departure of ‘remainer’ Jo Johnson, who resigned over the proposed Brexit deal. Jones was previously parliamentary under secretary at the DFT between May 2015 and June 2017. Train operators should support community rail organ

Improving cycling and walking infrastructure can increase spending in shops by up to 30%, according to a report published today by Transport for London (TfL). The research found that people walking, cycling and using public transport spend 40% more each month than car drivers. Some 45% of high street visits are for “social and community reasons” while improving streets for cycling and walking led to a 216% increase in “people stopping, sitting and socialising”, said the

Tower Hamlets Council is making over £120,000 available to community groups, schools, local businesses and housing associations who want to in reducing air pollution in the east London borough. To be eligible for funding, projects must be related to either reducing air pollution emissions, reducing air exposure to pollution or increasing awareness of air pollution; be directly relevant to actions in the council’s Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP); have a measurable impact; and have wid

Nuisance behaviour on the Manchester Metrolink trams could soon be hit with fines of up to £1,000, says Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM). A marketing and social media to be launched in January next year will warn that flouting Metrolink byelaws will lead to prosecution. The latest TfGM Monsters campaign will focus on swearing, the use of vaporisers and littering. Monster characters such as Smoky Joe, Drunken Duncan and Vaping Vera will appear at on adverts at tramstops an

Plans to make 10,000 miles of the National Cycle Network (NCN) traffic-free have been announced by Sustrans. Since the network was launched 23 years ago, the active travel charity has installed more than 5,000 traffic-free miles and aims to double this by 2040. This is among the pledges in a major review of the network, publis

An innovative physical activity programme which uses the technology found in high street reward cards to turn cities and towns into giant, mass participation games, is rolling out across the country, thanks to a new £3.32 million National Lottery grant from Sport England. The unique family game, called Beat the Street, rewards players who cycle, run or walk with points and prizes, encouraging families to get out and about and increase their physical activity.  Fifty-nine towns and ci

Prevention is a vital health topic for government and the health sector – and it’s also the focus of a new public health vision document, launched this week by Health Secretary Matt Hancock. The 'Prevention is better than cure' vision, which sets out how we can use policy, new technology, workplace strategies and the power of local communities to prevent worsening health, will also be a key focus for the Public Health & Sustainable Transport Summit to be held on 27 March 2019 in

Paul Hammond, global practice leader for economics at Mott MacDonald, an event partner for Smarter Travel LIVE!, echoed the calls from Mayors Rotherham and Burnham for better integrated transport infrastructure across the North, and is ready to support delivery. 'As many of the presenters at Smarter Travel LIVE! pointed out, the challenges and solutions are myriad and should not be seen in isolation. Active travel, for example, is a key aspect of a healthy community and an integral part of the

The 6th Annual Smarter Travel LIVE! Conference, hosted by Merseytravel & Liverpool City Region (LCR) on October 16 and 17, attracted more than 600 delegates from across the UK and beyond. Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of Liverpool City Region, and Andy Burnham, Greater Manchester Mayor, both gave keynotes, stressing their commitment to ongoing devolution and the delivery of a fully integrated, accessible and clean transport network linking key towns and cities across the North (see news pages)

Transport for the North (TfN) is on course to deliver a smart card for rail solution across the region by December 2018, said Alastair Richards, Programme Director, Smart and Integrated Travel, TfN, speaking at Smarter Travel LIVE! 2018 last week. This is part of a nationwide programme to roll out smart ticketing for all rail travel in the country, he addded. Phase 2, from 2019, will focus on customer information, collaboration and innovation, including enhanced information on bus fares, planned

Liverpool City Region's Mayor, Steve Rotheram, speaking at Smarter Travel LIVE!, last week, referred to the Office of Road and Rail’s report into a summer of rail chaos which found “systematic failures from government, Network Rail and the rail operators” leading to collapsed services and missed chances to avoid disruption. “Can you honestly imagine chaos on that scale being allowed to happen in London and the South East without major government intervention,” he as

Consultancy WSP won the ITS World Congress Award for Best Action for Supporting Diversity. The trophy was presented at the ITS World Congress in Copenhagen. The award recognises the engineering and business services company’s initiative to encourage and enable LGBT+ people to feel comfortable working in the sector.  WSP’s initiative is called VIBE, which stands for Visibility and Inclusion in the Built Environment. Launched in 2015, VIBE has evolved into WSP’s LGBT+ emplo

The England’s Economic Heartland (EEH) alliance of local authorities is calling on the Government to set an indicative funding envelope for the area,  to help prioritise infrastructure investment.  The funding envelope is one of five ‘asks’ the EEH is making of the Government ahead of the Budget, to accelerate delivery of the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge growth region, which lies at the heart of the EEH’s geography. The asks are: • committing to develop

The two 55-year old ferries that cross the Thames at Woolwich, south-east London, are to be replaced with new low-emission boats from January 2019. The free vehicle ferry service provided by TfL, linking Woolwich and North Woolwich, will be closed from 6 October until the end of the year while new berths are installed. The new berths incorporate high-tech auto-mooring systems, which will secure the vessels in the berth using magnetic technology. This removes the need for engine power while moor

Around 50 streets in the capital will be closed to traffic on Sunday 22 September to mark World Car Free Day. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Transport for London (TfL) are backing London Play, the charity that works to give children the freedom to play by shutting roads to traffic. The charity helps residents to organise Play Streets, where roads are closed to traffic a few hours once a week or month to provide a safe space for children to play outside with their friends. Play Streets also enc

Opening this month, Edinburgh's Your Bike cycle hire scheme is using innovative 'hybrid lock' technology that supports a network of 'virtual' geo-fenced bike parking stations along with physical stations. It's about bringing a planned and integrated approach with new facilities and solutions for cities so that the private car is no longer first choice, says Matt McNulty, urban mobility director for Serco and Your Bike The Your Bike scheme in Edinburgh, to be known as ‘Just Eat Cycles&rsqu

An east-west cycling route has been officially opened by London walking and cycling commissioner Will Norman. The 12km Quietway 2 (Q2) will enable people to cycle from east London into the city centre and on into Bloomsbury and Walthamstow via Angel, Haggerston, London Fields and Clapton. The Quietway network is a continuous direct and clearly signed cycle routes on the capital’s traffic light streets. The Quietways complement fully segregated cycle routes that Transport for London (TfL)

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has launched a cycle training scheme designed to get whole families out and about on two wheels. The training programme consists of free two-hour sessions led by a professional cycle instructor who travel to the family’s home and tailor each session to suit their needs. Parents will be taught how to lead safe cycling trips on the road and how to ride protectively with children. Their children will be taught how they can travel safely on the roads t

New laws to crack down on dangerous cyclists have been proposed in a new government consultation. The new offence would be equivalent to causing death by dangerous driving. The government says the three-month consultation would complement proposals announced in June for a crackdown on dangerous drivers who pass cyclists too. Transport minister Jesse Norman said: “In recent weeks we have announced a range of measures designed to protect vulnerable road users such as cyclists and pedestria

The 100th citybike docking station has been installed in Liverpool within the Titanic Hotel’s car park, in the World Heritage listed Stanley Dock. The new station, which can hold 10 bikes, connects the district to a network of stations across Liverpool, with the scheme now offering 500 bikes. Situated near to the Regent Road entrance the Ten Streets creativity district, the citybike station provides easy access to the city centre. The Regent Road area is undergoing a multi-million pound

Transport for London is offering grants to schemes to help groups in the capital that face barriers to cycling. The Cycling Grants London (CGL) programme, funded by TfL and run by environmental regeneration charity Groundwork London, is offering a total of £240,000, which will be available to up to 30 groups. Projects will receive up to £10,000 over a three-year period to support groups that do not cycle due to barriers relating to income, health, ability, skills and access to inform

The Department for Transport is seeking ideas on how to increase the number of ‘last mile’ deliveries made by electric cargo bikes and vans. The Last Mile and Future of Mobility call to evidence, both published today, will explore how technology could make transport safer, more accessible and greener.  The results of the call for evidence will form part of the government’s Future of Mobility Grand Challenge, which will explore all the regulatory barriers to technological

The government has imposed a moratorium on the creation of any new ‘shared space’ schemes in response to concerns raised during the consultation on its new Inclusive Transport Strategy. The strategy was developed following the Accessibility Action Plan (AAP) consultation, which received over 1,000 responses. Shared space schemes involve the removal of features such as kerbs, road surface markings, designated crossing places and traffic signs are removed. In the strategy document, t

Thousands of motorists are still flouting a traffic ban that was introduced three years ago in the London Borough of Waltham Forest as part of the Mini Holland programme. More than 9,000 fines have been issued to motorists contravening the traffic ban on Orford Road in the Walthamstow Village area. The scheme was introduced in 2015 as part of the Mini-Holland programme, with three outer London boroughs – Waltham Forest, Enfield and Kingston upon Thames – receiving around £100m

The government will put up to £300m into extending the Access for All programme, making railway stations more accessible, including through step-free access. The funding commitment was announced alongside publication of the Inclusive Transport Strategy, which seeks to improve accessibility across all types of travel for those with both visible and less visible disabilities. The Department for Transport said the new measures and funding will help ensure disabled people can travel confiden

Proposals to make London the world’s most walkable city have been unveiled by Will Norman, London’s walking and cycling commissioner. The capital’s first Walking Action Plan, which is supported by Public Health England (PHE), maps out a vision to make London the most walkable city in the world, with a million extra walking trips each day by 2024. London’s Mayor Sadiq Kahn wants to increase the proportion of people walking, cycling and taking public transport from the cur

Plans for a major upgrade of junction 9 of the M3 motorway at Winchester have attracted overwhelming support at a public consultation. Some 96% of respondents backed the need for the improvements to this junction, which will be redesigned to create a dedicated free flow lanes, which will allow drivers travelling between the M3 and the A34 to avoid using the junction roundab

The Automated and Electric Vehicles (EAV) Act, which has now passed through Parliament, is set to be a significant step towards improving air quality, cutting congestion and boosting road safety, claims Government. The AEV Act will see a 'massive improvement' in electric chargepoint availability, and gives the government new powers to ensure motorway services are upgraded with plenty of points, and even allowing mayors to request installations at large fuel retailers in their areas. I

Now in its 3rd year, the Awards will showcase the ways in whiich people's lives are being improved through cost-effective, clean and integrated transport provision across towns and cities. These awards celebrate both the positive impact that smarter travel projects can deliver, and the professionals who lead them. Whoever you are, whatever your project or service, everyone has a chance of winning a Smarter Travel Award. You don’t have to have the biggest budgets, the sexiest product or th

According to recent statistics produced by the Department for Transport, bus service use in England is in decline. Although bus use per person has increased significantly in London over the last 25 years (+52%), it has fallen by 40 per cent in many other English metropolitan areas. Along with London, Liverpool City Region is a proud exception to the rule. As a result of the introduction of a range of customer-focused improvements, including on board Wi-fi and USB charging points, the number of f

ArrivaClick is an on-demand minibus service that takes multiple passengers heading in the same direction and books them on a shared vehicle, with the aim of tackling air quality issues and congestion. Enabling people to move out of private cars with the offer of convenient and comfortable shared journeys is a key driver for the project. ArrivaClick in Liverpool will become operational later in the summer. There are no fixed routes, with journeys determined by where passengers want to go wit

Painting a picture of the changing use of our transport system is not easy. A picture composed only of averages or aggregate change amounts to clumsy brush strokes. The finer detail in the picture comes from the artist’s ability to reflect the diversity of components of change – the distributions from which the averages arise. The Department for Transport's latest statistical release, 'Road Traffic Estimates: Great Britain 2017'  attempts to paint a picture, including fine

A project designed to reduce the dominance of the car on a shopping street in Newcastle has won support from a retailer who was among its harshest critics. Steve Robson (pictured) and other traders had opposed Newcastle City Council’s plans to remove parking bays on Acorn Road, in the suburb of Jesmond, and feared the changes would drive away customers. Three years ago the council implemented the £350,000 project, funded by the government’s Cycle City Ambition Fund, making th

The government must start to lay the foundations now for the altered streetscape of 2050 when all cars and vans will be electric as well as mostly autonomous, argues the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) in a new report. The first National Infrastructure Assessment, published this week, sets out a long-term strategy for the UK’s economic infrastructure from 2020 to 2050. Electric vehicles will soon have the same range and be cheaper to buy and maintain than fossil fuel vehicles, t

A once notorious gyratory road system has been transformed into Aldgate Square, one of the largest public spaces in the City of London, featuring safer routes for cyclists and pedestrians. The six-year, £23m project is now complete, with the square being opened by Charles Bowman, the Lord Mayor of the City of London. The square, which is near Aldgate Underground station, has undergone a host of changes. The one-way gyratory system has been replaced with two-way traffic. Also, new cycling

The government has stated its aim of making all cars and vans on the UK’s roads zero emission by 2050. The sale of all new petrol and diesel cars and vans will end by 2040, as set out in the government’s Air quality plan. “By then, we expect the majority of new cars and vans sold to be 100% zero. By 2050 we want almost every car and van to be zero emission,” says the Road to Zero strategy. The government previously stated in its

Nearly half of cyclists often experience ‘close pass’ incidents when out on their bikes, according to a survey by the London Cycling Campaign (LCC). The online survey, which received more than 3,000 responses from LCC members and supporters, reveals that being passed closely by a motor vehicle happens to 23% every time they cycle while 45% said it was a frequent occurrence. Among the other key findings, 50% said they now cycled in the centre of the lane as much as possible, 32% had

Plans have been drawn up to transform Stockport’s bus station into a transport interchange. Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) is working with Stockport Council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) to develop the £1bn investment plan. The proposals include: A fully accessible, covered passenger concourse in the interchange with seated waiting areas Better and easier routes to the town centre for pedestrians. with improved links to the rail station, Merseyway

Former London cycling commissioner Andrew Gilligan has recommended a huge investment in cycling facilities in Oxford, Cambridge and Milton Keynes in a report for the Government’s National Infrastructure Commission.  Gilligan was commissioned to write a report on cycling provision in the three cities as part of the NIC’s wider work on the growth prospects and infrastructure needs of the Oxford-Milton Keynes-Cambridge arc. His report is highly critical of  provision for cyc

The government will encourage police forces to tackle ‘close pass’ driving, the transport minister Jesse Norman has announced. Speaking at the Cycle City Active City conference in Manchester last week, the minister praised the work of West Midlands Police, which was the first force in the UK to carry out ‘close pass’ operations.   Norman visited police officers Steve Hudson (pictured above) and Mark Hodson, who pioneered the West Midlands operation. “It has be

The retailer Halfords is to give around £1m to the Bikeability scheme to enable an additional 25,000 primary school children in England to receive cycling training. The 40-month agreement between Halfords and cycling training charity the Bikeability Trust was announced by transport minister Jesse Norman at the Cycle City Active City conference in Manchester last Friday. Norman said: “This extra money will expand Bikeability so that more children can cycle safely and confidently on l

Steve Rotheram, Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor, and Nathalie Nicholas, the Combined Authority’s recently-appointed Deputy Portfolio Holder for Transport and Air Quality, represented the city region during June at a National Clean Air Summit convened by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, UK100 and IPPR. The idea is a simple one, says The Independent: ‘Get people from across the UK in the same room, from a local level all the way up to the corridors of Whitehall, to see what can be do

Brighton's bike share scheme (BTN BikeShare) is to expand with 120 new bikes and nine new hubs, mostly in Hove.  The scheme started last September with 450 bikes at 51 sites and, in the nine months since, has attracted 35,000 subscribers. Back in March, after gaining more than 22,000 users in just six months, the scheme became the biggest in the UK outside of London, and by the end of May there had been 213,000 rentals and more than 400,000 miles cycled, according to the Brighton and Hove N

Work is to start next week on building a new transport interchange at Ashton Bus Station in Greater Manchester. The new interchange – to be delivered by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and Tameside Council – will feature a covered concourse, with seated waiting areas, as well as electronic information screens. It will have shops, fully accessible toilets, baby-changing provision and enhanced passenger security including CCTV. There will also be improved taxi facilities. Dur

Following the release of the first fleet of proof of concept vehicles in Christchurch in 2017, along with trials across NZ and Australia with other partners and technologies, HMI Technologies (HMI), a New Zealand / Australian-based Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) innovator and a member of ITS UK, has developed a self driving & self-learning AV technology company called Ohmio Automotion. HMI has been a player in the ITS industry for more than 15 years and, based on its experience wor

A mass cycle ride took place on the streets of Portsmouth yesterday to mark the start of Refugee Week. The event was organised by The British Red Cross and charity Cycling UK to highlight how giving refugees and asylum seekers access to bikes can help change their lives. The event is part of Cycling UK's Big Bike Revival project, which seeks to refurbish unused bikes along with maintenance advice and training events to get people cycling again or for the first time. Am

Anna Delveccio, who started her transport engineering career as a teenager, has received the top honour at the 2018 FTA everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards.  Launched 11 years ago, the awards programme celebrates women transforming transport and logistics in the UK. The winners included women working for transport organisations including Heathrow Airport, Royal Mail, Merseytravel and Transport for London.  The Woman of the Year Award was presented to Anna Delvecchio, Comme

Measures to improve road safety outside a girls’ school in east London have been drawn up by an all-female team. Tower Hamlets council brought in consultant Project Centre to work on the project with students from Central Foundation Girls’ School (CFGS).  Supported by female managers from Project Centre, students went on a site visit, collected survey data and assessed the needs of all road users. This helped shape the proposed measures, which are now out for public consultatio

Stockholm’s congestion charge scheme has proved remarkably effective at suppressing traffic levels and encouraging a shift to other modes of transport in the 20 plus years since its launch. After initially facing widespread public opposition, it now has majority support, even among those who regularly pay the charge. One of the scheme’s architects, Director of the Stockholm City Transport Administration Jonas Eliasson, vividly recalls the uproar around its launch in 2006: “It w

Westminster City Council has withdrawn its support for the Mayor of London’s proposals to pedestrianise the western section of Oxford Street. Mayor Sadiq Khan wanted to see the section from Oxford Circus to Orchard Street, near the flagship Selfridges store, pedestrianised.  This would have coincided with the opening of the Elizabeth Line (Crossrail) between Paddington and Abbey Wood next year, with improved pedestrian access at Bond Street station. However, the council has now stat

Funding is being offered to schools and local authorities in Scotland to help them create safe, traffic-free routes. The Safer Routes to School scheme is being funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by the charity Sustrans. Sustrans hopes that creating safe zones around schools will encourage children and their parents or guardians to travel to school on foot, by bike or scooter. As well as helping schools develop traffic-free zones, Sustrans plans to target further education colleges

How is the advent of big data influencing the way we build our models? How can Virtual Reality allow us to better visualise, and thus better understand, pedestrian experience in crowds? Driven by the necessity to develop ever larger and accurate models, Atkins' pedestrian modelling team has explored an innovative approach that involved the adoption of both traditional survey methods as well as the monitoring of WiFi-enabled devices. Virtual Reality was also adopted as a tool to aid the design pr

The key findings of a European research project into the impact of transport policy on congestion have been published in a new report. The project – called CREATE (Congestion Reduction in Europe: Advancing Transport Efficiency) – examined congestion reduction policies in five western European capitals: Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Paris and Vienna. The report charts how policy priorities in the cities have shifted over the past 50-60 years: from road building, parking, lower density

Walking is a basic human activity but its fundamental character can make it difficult to identify and categorise as a mode of transport and consequently to occupy a prominent position on the policy agenda. In order to find its political identity it must be given a context. For example, this can include walking for a purpose, such as for leisure or as part of a journey to work, or how walking interacts with its environment, including urban and suburban townscapes, and more natural rural landscape

Walking is a basic human activity but its fundamental character can make it difficult to identify and categorise as a mode of transport and consequently to occupy a prominent position on the policy agenda. In order to find its political identity it must be given a context. For example, this can include walking for a purpose, such as for leisure or as part of a journey to work, or how walking interacts with its environment, including urban and suburban townscapes, and more natural rural landscape

Disabled pedestrians and people living in low-income households are much more likely than non-disabled and richer people to be injured by a motor vehicle, suggests a new study. The study, titled ‘Road injuries in the National Travel Survey: under-reporting and inequalities in injury risk’, was conducted by Dr Rachel Aldred, reader in transport at the University of Westminster.  The study highlights that for every mile walked, a low-income pedestrian is three times more likely

The 36 finalists in the 2018 FTA everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards have been announced. Now in its eleventh year, the awards programme celebrates the achievements of women in the UK’s transport and logistics industry.  This year’s finalists include women working for transport organisations including Heathrow Express, Merseytravel, Network Rail, Transport for London and West Midlands Trains. The UK transport and logistics industry employs around 2.4 million people.

The Department for Transport is urging the public to take part in a consultation on cycling and walking before the 1 June deadline. The department’s call for evidence on cycling and walking - Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy (CWIS) safety review in England – and seeks views and opinions on everything from improved infrastructure to education for all road users. In March transport minister Jesse Norman announced in March 300,000 in total for three pilot projects, which aim to

Work to build Cycle Superhighway 11 (CS11) at Swiss Cottage is to start in mid-July, Transport for London (TfL) has announced. The current gyratory system will be removed and a two-way system introduced on Finchley Road and Adelaide Road. Avenue Road, which is between College Crescent and Adelaide Road, will become bus and cycle only, with a stepped cycle track, creating a new public space. Changes to Swiss Cottage are due to be finished in September. The reconfigured route will improve safety

A new rail station has opened at Kenilworth, Warwickshire on the site of the previous station, which closed in 1965 as part of the Beeching cuts. The station, between Coventry and Leamington Spa, is part of the region’s new, locally managed rail franchise. Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and Warwickshire County Council helped fund the project along with £4.9m of funding from the DfT through the Transport’s New Stations Fund. The reopening of the s

Changes in how we plan our transport networks for the future are urgently needed, says the first report from the Commission on Travel Demand We need to start planning now for how we travel around England in the coming decades, according to a major new report. It explains how, as a population, we travel substantially less today than we did one or two decades ago. Overall, we make fewer trips, spend less time travelling, and travel fewer miles.  But there are noticeable differences in our t

Do you know how to open a car door safely? Exactly who is allowed to travel on the pavement? Is there a speed limit for cycling? During May 2018, as part of a public consultation, the Minister for Transport's team will be visiting four English regions to talk with the public about road safety prior to possible changes in the law Against the backdrop of a country concerned about obesity levels, air pollution and congestion, the Government is keen to make cycling and walking the natural cho

After the Labour Party had launched a policy providing free bus travel for people under 25 in areas that adopt bus franchising or municipal bus operations (LTT 13 Apr), Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee observed on 12 April that: “It’s a good idea, but still a lot less generous than many older people’s free travel passes. Outside London over-65s get bus concessions; in London the over-60s get not just free buses but free tubes as well, even for high earners still in work. &ldqu

Nearly 400 guided walks are to take place across Greater Manchester in May as part of a festival to encourage people to make journeys on foot and explore the region. The event, organised by Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), will offers free guided walks exploring local towns, cities, countryside, canals, riversides and parks across the conurbation. The festival has the support of several local walking groups and charities. Walks cater for all abilities and interests, including a family

Over two-fifths of children are worried about air pollution near their school, a new UK-wide survey reveals. Some 43% of children living in urban areas are concerned about the levels of air pollution near their school. The YouGov poll, carried out for walking and cycling charity Sustrans, surveyed over 1,000 children aged six to 15 years old last month about their attitudes towards air pollution and the actions they think should be taken to help clean up the air.  More than one in three (

Senior citizens and the disabled will see their free off-peak bus travel concession in England maintained for the foreseeable future following amendments to the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme, the Department for Transport has confirmed. The scheme, which was introduced in 2007, ensures that bus passengers aged over 65 or with a disability are entitled to travel free of charge on any off-peak local service throughout England. Some 10m people use the concessionary scheme. Buses Min

Jon Orcutt, director of communications and advocacy at Transit Center, NYC, talks to Transport Xtra about the need for NYC's proposed congestion charging policy and why Uber and Lyft are currently a menace to the city. Jon talked with Andy Salkeld, Leicester City Council Transit Center is a national Foundation dedicated to improving public transit. We are based in New York City, specifically in Lower Manhattan, and were closely involved with the major positive changes that took place under th

The rising demand for cycle parking across the capital is not being met, with Network Rail particularly culpable in its failure to provide enough cycle racks at train stations, says the London Assembly in a report published today. Transport for London (TfL) should set out “clear steps” on how the rising demand for cycle parking will be met, which partners will be involved and how the infrastructure will be funded, says the assembly’s transport committee. Network Rail was sing

Building homes above railway tracks is a cost effective way of tackling London’s housing shortage, according to John Parker, a director at consultant WSP. Speaking at Rail Stations and Property, Parker said that building on reinforced concrete boxes that straddle rail tracks could provide a quarter of a million homes in the capital. This is based on WSP’s calculation that towers could be built on 10% of the capital’s 11,000km of railway, which, on average, has a 20m-wide corri

The first generation of station travel plans (STPs) were implemented in a bid to better manage, and proactively influence, the modes of travel people use to get to and from UK rail stations. They generally sought to actively promote sustainable travel options; reduce single occupant car trips; and tackle imbalances between parking demand, the quality of facilities for different station users, and differential impacts on neighbouring land uses.  Following an initial wave of pilots, the UK b

Gender inequality remains a big issue when it comes to active travel in the UK, says Sustrans. The charity has published a new report, ‘Are We Not There Yet?, revealing that women’s journeys around cities are typically shorter than men’s, use different modes of transport and are more likely to involve ‘trip-chaining’ (multi-stop journeys) which tend to be for a balance of child care, work and household responsibilities. While women are motivated to tr

Tottenham Court Road is set to become more cyclist and pedestrian friendly, with all motor vehicles except buses banned from using the thoroughfare between 8am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday. The restrictions are due to be in place by early 2020, said the London Borough of Camden. The first phase of the £35m scheme begins in March, with initial works to include: new granite paving on New Oxford Street by Centre Point; the removal of pedestrian barriers and traffic light poles from Tottenham

A growing number of workers in the UK would rather be based in lively urban centres than business parks on the outskirts even when there is ample parking, according to a new report from the Urban Transport Group. “More people in more key sectors of the economy do not wish to be ‘buried alive’ in a business park on the outskirts (however good the car parking) and their skills are in sufficient demand that they can choose the employers that provide them with a more interesting a

Plans for a West London Orbital rail line - connecting Hounslow, Hendon and Cricklewood - feature in the Mayor of London’s Transport Strategy. Mayor Sadiq Khan’s transport vision for the next 25 years was presented today to the London Assembly ahead of its final publication next month. The proposed West London Orbital Line, linking up London Overground services, would run via Brent Cross, Old Oak

The Campaign for Better Transport has announced it is looking to appoint a new chief executive office to replace Stephen Joseph, who will be stepping down at the end of Autumn. Joseph was appointed executive director of Transport 2000 in 1988, the same year Michael Palin was appointed President, and received an OBE in 1996 for services to transport and the environment. Transport 2000 changed its name to Campaign for Better Transport in 2007. During his 30-year tenure with the charity, Joseph

All over the world, we are observing the trend towards pedestrianising whole districts rather than individual streets. Zaha Hadid Architects has proposed ‘Walkable London’, a full-scale network of pedestrian routes which will create corridors of activation across the capital.  Walkable London aims at re-introducing walking as an integral part of the city’s transport network. The firm's research highlights, available as a research booklet, state several key statistics driv

Following its trial of bus services in London last year, travel app Citymapper has finally launched what it terms ‘The Responsive Network: a  solution for dynamic shared transportation in cities’. The service is live in London, and is know as ‘Smart Ride’, and is already available via the apps. Writing in a post on medium, Citymapper declares that they ‘design a network, not a route’. ‘Unlike traditional buses that are tied to a route, our veh

Following entrance to multiple markets in the United States, Chariot  is launching its daily commuter shuttle service in London, to 'make getting around the city easier'. Chariot London is the latest of Ford’s European initiatives, accelerating the development of its smart mobility technologies. Throughout 2018, Ford will be trialling a 20-strong fleet of plug-in hybrid Transit Custom vans in the UK capital as part of the “Cleaner Air for London" initiative supported by Tra

Cycling UK is to run its Big Bike Revival across England for the fourth consecutive year having secured £500,000 funding from the Department for Transport (DfT). The campaign will offer free cycle checks, maintenance advice and tips on how to get cycling. The project seeks to help people get their unused bikes back on the road along with training events to get people cycling again or for the first time. Last year’s event encouraged more than 6,000 people to become regular cyclists

With all the talk of autonomous and electric cars, hyper loops, bi-mode trains that run under wires and then don’t, etc, the world of the transport planner is being turned upside down. What we thought we knew is no longer holding true, technology is changing all we knew, and legislation is not keeping up. Let me illustrate through one simple example. With the advent of electric-powered cycles, what is the difference between such a cycle and a mobility scooter (or an invalid carriage as th

One dividend from the rapid developments in information technology has been the emergence of the concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in the form of the integration of multi-modal information, ticketing and payment systems. The idea of integrated transport systems is long-established but has often been frustrated by events. Yet MaaS apparently offers the opportunity for a new level of seamless door-to-door mobility by using just one platform and a single payment. The service can therefore com

To move, we occasionally need to stop. Indeed, we could look at door-to-door / end-to-end journeys by designing how we stop (to change from one bit of the journey to another) as much as how we travel. Transport hubs and interchanges are all about designing hiatuses between journey segments. Whilst we usually think of these as the grander multi-modal cheek-to-cheek interchanges, the humble bus stop is an intermodal interchange hub too. So far, so obvious. But in the emerging models of mobility a

We’re on the verge of a huge shift in the way we live and travel. Ownership was long considered the pinnacle of societal ranking – and in some ways, still is. Buying a house or a car has traditionally been seen as a rite of passage, a way to mark one’s success. But things are starting to change. In the current economic climate, renting has become the norm for younger people and buying a car is beginning to seem like a waste of money when more and more of us are living in cities

Islington Council has invited public comment on the redesign of the Old Street roundabout as part of the £1m competition to transform the gateway to London’s ‘tech city’. Thirty-nine proposals have been selected for discussion from the 120 submitted. One proposal, called Silicon Hill, from architects Cove Burgess and Eco Cycle storage envisages three cylindrical glass towers with safe storage for more than 600 bicycles, which would surround a 'pocket park' and café

The pace of technology-driven innovation from the private sector in shared transportation services, vehicles, and networks is rapid, accelerating, and filled with opportunity. At the same time, city streets are a finite and scarce resource. These principles, produced by a working group of international NGOs led by Robin Chase, and including c40, ICLEI and World Resources Institute, are designed to guide urban decision-makers and stakeholders toward the best outcomes for all. Ride-sharing start

Increasing traffic congestion across mega cities and large urban centres, coupled with the resulting loss to the economy, is driving the need for more efficient modes of urban transportation. Flying cars are being explored as an alternative form of future mobility, making use of the underutilised domestic airspace.  Flying cars are set to disrupt the personal mobility space of the future with at least ten early entrants expected to launch various versions of flying cars by 2022. OEMs and o

With an estimated one billion hypertension cases worldwide, the role of the built environment in its prevention and control is still uncertain. With this in mind, a new study published in the International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health examined the associations between neighbourhood walkability, blood pressure and hypertension in a large and diverse population-based cohort. Access the study's abstract and results here The study shows that neighbourhood walkability within one-kilo

An artificial intelligence system designed to help clear the best route for ambulances is set to have its first live trial in Oxford this year. Computer modelling in Liverpool indicates that the AI could reduce response times by 40%, but the Oxford trial will be the first live test on the road. It is due to start by the end of the spring and is expected to last a year. Ambulance services across the UK are required to meet 75% of life-threatening cases within 8 minutes to guarantee NHS funding an

Plans are being drawn up for five new stations across England and Wales, which will receive a total of £16m funding from the Department for Transport towards the projects. All the stations – in County Durham, Warrington, Reading, Ceredigion and Bristol - are due to be completed by March 2020:  Horden Peterlee in County Durham will receive £4.4m of DfT funding towards a scheme worth £10.55m. The area has low levels of car ownership, and it is hoped the station will

The Government has announced that Leicester City Council is to receive £10m of funding for highway infrastructure to unlock further development at the city council’s Ashton Green housing site. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Sajid Javid met with Leicester’s City Mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby at Ashton Green where they made the announcement. Find out more about how Leicester and other cities

A team of leading architects, designers and engineers have been selected by HS2 Ltd to modernise Euston station and develop plans for new stations in Birmingham, Solihull and Old Oak Common, north-west London. The firms will be contracted to create detailed designs for the four stations, due to open in 2026: The contracts are as follows: Birmingham Curzon Street – WSP UK Limited (working with Grimshaw Architects LLP) Birmingham Interchange – Ove Arup & Partners International

The Department for Transport (DfT) Bike Share masterclass, held last week in Leicester, saw local authorities and operators alike give the DfT a strong heads-up that, in future, some kind of bike share licensing framework may be needed in England. Whilst agreeing that voluntary codes of conduct and signing up to the Bikeplus accreditation scheme are working for now, with the co-operation of the current players operating in the UK, there is no guarantee that less co-operative operators won't seek

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has given the green light for six new cycle routes across the capital, with a mix of main roads and Quietways through Ilford, Barking, Tottenham, Wembley, Willesden, Peckham and Rotherithe.  About 75% of the routes, spanning nine boroughs, will run on main roads. “We have already expressed a strong preference for most of the routes on main roads to be segregated,” said a Mayor of London spokesman. These projects have been chosen from a list of 25 routes

Sustrans is inviting cities and local authorities to take part in a project to collect cycling data relating to infrastructure, travel habits, public attitudes and air quality. As an extension of its Bike Life initiative, the charity says the project will help participating cities build the case for cycling and inform planning at a local level while shaping the political and funding landscape for active travel across the UK. For example, Greater Manchester’s cycling commissioner Chr

Plans for a new ‘Station Quarter’ around Runcorn rail station forms the centrepeice of a major regeneration of the Cheshire town. Halton Borough Council is working with a consortium, including architects We Made That and consultants Regeneris and Steer Davies Gleave, to develop a masterplan featuring housing, retail, commercial and leisure units in Runcorn. Runcorn station is on the Liverpool branch of the West Coast Mainline and is also a commuter station into Liverpool Lime Street

There is a massive imbalance between how much the government spends on maintaining national and local roads, says the Local Government Association (LGA). New analysis by the LGA says the government is set to provide £1.1m per mile to maintain its strategic road network between 2015 and 2020, compared with just £21,000 per mile for local roads over the same period. The government must take urgent steps to help councils tackle the £12bn repair bill for local roads, says the LGA.

The roll-out of the 20mph limit across all residential and shopping streets in Edinburgh has entered its fourth and final phase. The scheme is to extend to South Edinburgh on 5 March. This marks the completion of an 18-month roll-out across the Scottish capital. Edinburgh joins the growing number of European and UK cities introducing lower speed limits, a move supported by organisations such as Police Scotland, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the World Health Orga

It was almost a year ago that I stood on the podium at Rail Stations and Property Summit describing the concept of ‘Station Place’, which we had developed for the Rail Delivery Group to demonstrate how their Nine Principles of Future Station Design might look.  After my talk, I was introduced to Jonathan Martin, the director of investment and delivery at the London Borough of Waltham Forest. Jonathan had spoken at the Summit on his vision for developing some key areas of under-

The new Maghull North station rail station is set to open in May as part of a £340m package of rail improvements across the Liverpool city area over the next three years.  Work on the £13m scheme, which is being delivered by Network Rail on behalf of Merseytravel, started in September 2017. Funding came from the government’s Local Growth Fund (LGF), Merseytravel and the Homes and Communities Agency, which previously owned the land on which the station will be built. 

The major revamp of King’s Cross station and its environs has been recognised at the London Planning Awards. Network Rail scooped the ‘Best Project Five Years On’ and the ‘Mayors Planning Award for Excellence’ trophies at this year’s event, held at Whitehall Palace last week. The London Planning Awards is organised in partnership with the Mayor of London, London First, RTPI, Planning Officers Society and London Councils. Since the Grade 1 listed transport hu

The Netherlands is in pole position to make the transition to automated transport, reveals a new report from professional service company KPMG. It found that the Netherlands came top in a cross-section of 20 countries planning for self-driving vehicles. Using an Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index (AVRI), KPMG scored each nation on four ‘pillars’: policy & legislation; technology & innovation; infrastructure; and consumer acceptance. Behind the Netherlands the other top rank

Pupils at Langstone Infant School and Langstone Junior School are the first to take part in this year's Portsmouth City Council Pompey Monster Walk to School Challenge. The seven week walk to school challenge starts next week and ends in March. In the launch assembly in January pupils heard about the scheme, and even met the Pompey Monster mascot - Stomper!  Pupils are required to walk to school at least three times a week to pass the weekly challenge. In return they will receive a sp

A bicycle training and servicing enterprise has launched an initiative to give refugees refurbished bikes and bike maintenance training. Pro Bike Service CIC is seeking financial donations, bikes and bike parts to support refugee families in east London. This will enable refugees to access amenities and services, education and employment while also providing a means of healthy transport.  Pro Bike works within the gift economy, where services or goods are given without any explicit agreeme

The planned East Midlands Hub station should open well in advance of the arrival of HS2 in 2033 to help stimulate the local economy. This is among a list of priorities agreed last week by the DfT and Midlands Connect and East Midlands Councils. They have stated a commitment to open the station at Toton in the 2020s, at least for Network Rail services, to support the planned Innovation Campus nearby, which has the potential to create 10,000 new jobs. In a meeting between transport secretary Chr

As government and local authorities grapple with the housing shortage, this year’s Rail Stations and Property Summit offers a timely look at how best to deliver new homes around rail stations.  The event, to be held at 15 Hatfields in London on 21 February, will explore how local authorities, the property sector and the railways can work together to enable the development and improvement of rail stations, attract funding and make new housing around rail stations work.  Rail S

The economic benefits of modernising Preston railway station are to be explored in a study commissioned by Lancashire Enterprise Partnerships (LEP). Last week the LEP approved proposals by its Transport for Lancashire committee to assess the case for transforming the station. “Specialist consultants will need to be engaged to undertake this work, which will also need to include forecasts of future passenger demand, particularly for when HS2 services begin operating in 2026.” 

CIHT has finally launched its review of the issue of shared space and how it is being designed, implemented and installed across England. ‘Creating better streets: Inclusive and accessible places’ provides a series of recommendations to Government and industry on how this complex issue can be further improved and developed. The review’s recommendations are aimed at Government, local authorities and those professionals who are working to make our highways inclusive, safer and a

Responsibility and regulation is becoming an increasingly hot topic for bike share, with questions being asked in the UK Parliament and the Lords about what powers local authorities in England have to regulate schemes within their boundaries. These issues will be a major focus of the DfT-supported Bike Share Masterclass in Leicester on 30 January, as Minister Jesse Norman contemplates the need for a possible ‘national standard’  Bike share goes from strength to strength acros

Fears over safety is the main reason why parents and carers will not allow their children to actively travel to school in Scotland, reveals new research. The findings come from the School Travel Survey for Parents, released by Sustrans Scotland and the Scottish Parent Teacher Council (SPTC). It found that 42.4% of parents cited a range of concerns over active travel to school. These included unsafe walking and cycling routes, a lack of or inadequate pavements, ineffective or lack of crossings

A new safer route for walkers, cyclists and horse riders, connecting the villages of Okeford Fitzpaine and Shillingstone in north Dorset, has officially opened to the public. The route, known as the Little Lane Trailway, had been largely impassable for the last 30 years. The project was wholly funded by the EU’s LEADER Rural Development Programme through the Northern Dorset Local Action Group (LAG). The Little Lane Link Project secured an award of £44,200, due to

Argyll & Bute Council wants Transport Scotland to explore the feasibility of building tunnels to remove a trunk road from a notorious landslip area, and to improve connections with Scotland’s central belt. The council’s policy and resources committee considered a report last month outlining a range of options for new east-west tunnels or bridges to connect the south of the area with the central belt.  The Cowal Fixed Link Working Group is championing the idea of better tra

Swansea University and Brunel University London have won a competition to run Santander bike hire schemes, after raising the highest amounts in crowdfunding campaigns.  Swansea and Brunel raised the most among a shortlist of five universities towards the running costs of cycle hire schemes. The cycle hire schemes will be open to students, residents and visitors. The winning universities will now receive the capital costs for their schemes from Santander, which will cover the initial

Barriers that prevent some groups in the capital from cycling are being removed thanks to a grants programme, says Transport for London (TfL). The Cycling Grants London (CGL) programme, funded by TfL and administered by environmental organisation Groundwork London, aims to support those that do not cycle due to barriers relating to income, health, ability, skills and access to information or equipment. Since the programme was launched in 2015, nearly £600,000 has been awarded to a wi

The use of remote control systems to park cars would become legal in the UK under proposals outlined by the government. The consultation started today and will run for six weeks. Remote control parking is a type of advanced driver assistance system that allows the driver to carry out a parking manoeuvre from either inside or outside the vehicle by using an external device. The device may either be one supplied with the veh

Greater Manchester's walking and cycling commissioner Chris Boardman has published his much anticipated report Made to Move (report will download instantly), which outlines 15 key steps to transform Greater Manchester by changing the way its citizens and visitors get around. The goal ‘should be to double and then double again cycling in Greater Manchester, and make walking the natural choice for as many short trips as possible. We must do this by putting people first, creati

Transport operators and councils must implement a range of measures to help people with mental impairments to travel, says a new report for the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC). As well as improving wellbeing and encouraging independence, the measures would benefit the economy, argues the report. People with mental impairments make fewer journeys than the rest of the population due to anxiety and lack of confidence. Reasons include: not being eligible to travel concessi

More space for hire bikes is urgently needed at mainline railway stations in London to meet commuter demand, according to David Eddington, head of cycle hire at Transport for London (TfL).  Secure, overnight lock-up facilities for the Santander cycles should be provided near stations, he said. Staff could wheel the bikes between docking stations and nearby storage facilities or do shuttle runs in vans, which would be “much better than transporting the bikes through the congestion of

The current UK physical activity guidelines were published by the Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) in 2011, and offer evidence-based recommendations for physical activity related health outcomes. Starting at the end of 2017, a review will be conducted to provide updated practical public health guidelines and develop potential implementation pathways for all groups, from healthcare to communication professionals.   Access the UK physical activity guidelines review pages  Over t

Sport England has chosen 12 places to work with on a new approach to build healthier, more active communities across England. Around £100 million of National Lottery funding will be invested in the pilot scheme over four years, to create innovative partnerships that make it easier for people in these communities to access sport and physical activity. The 12 pilots are: Birmingham and Solihull, Bradford, Calderdale, Doncaster, Essex, Great Exeter, Greater Manchester, Hackney, Pennine Lanca

Research undertaken for the recently published Urban Mobility Innovation Index suggests that whilst most cities do have an established strategy for urban mobility, these are frequently a statement of ambitions and guiding principles rather than a roadmap set out to address concrete local challenges, informed by comprehensive data. Coverage of mobility options relating to health, fairness and accessibility is ‘quite diverse among cities’, as is the quality of the service provided

Housing developments will be car-free except for disabled people in parts of the capital with the best public transport connections, under new measures announced by London Mayor Sadiq Khan. This is among the proposals to reduce parking capacity in the mayor’s draft London Plan, published this week. The draft states that residential car parking would not be linked to unit size, so that parking spaces would no longer go up as unit sizes increase. Meanwhile, office developments in central a

Train operator Southeastern bagged two trophies at the National Cycle-Rail awards presented at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster yesterday. Southeastern took the coveted Operator of the Year award as well as Best Station of the Year for its work in improving bike parking facilities at Gravesend Station. The awards, hosted by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), celebrate the work done by the rail industry and associated organisations to encourage integrated cycle-rail travel. Station of the Year G

People with mental health conditions are being let down by transport operators failing to cater for their needs, according to Roger Mackett, Emeritus Professor of Transport at University College London. Speaking at the TRL Academy Symposium last week, he said that those with mental health impairments are being deterred from using bus and rail services due to lack of support from operators. This includes not giving staff the right training to help those with mental health issues, the shift to dri

As so often, my reason for looking at the issue I’m about to raise is that it’s one I’ve encountered in different ways over the past few weeks. I’ll refer to three ‘case studies’ that all reflect on the same question: how is public opinion taken into account when making decisions about the public realm? As Exhibit A, I present the edited highlights of a series of tweets from a journalist at a classic public ‘consultation’ event. ‘I’m a

Judging from his upbeat disposition, Paul Campion seems to be relishing his new role at the helm of the Transport Systems Catapult. Having spent more than 30 years at IBM, his deep understanding of technology trends will no doubt help him to gauge intelligent mobility’s potential. “I wouldn’t have left IBM for any other opportunity,” he says. “This is a once in a lifetime chance to help grow the UK economy and create jobs. This is an extraordinary moment in history

For five weekends in the run-up to Christmas Brighton & Hove Buses is offering free bus journeys to up to three children under the age of 16 or Bus ID holders who are accompanied by an adult The bus company hopes the offer will help reduce congestion caused by cars at such a busy time of year for shopping. Brighton & Hove Buses managing director Martin Harris said: “We want to help people to leave their cars at home and opt for public transport in order to reduce congestion on o

A £1.7bn Transforming Cities Fund to improve transport links and promote local growth within city regions was announced today by the government. This will include a £250m project to extend the Metro service in the West Midlands.  The government also unveiled plans today for more public and private research & development investment, which will projects to develop ‘big data’, artificial intelligence and self-driving cars. A Department for Business Energy and Indus

Idealised visions of ‘The City of the Future’ are often presented as a symbol of progress. Whilst specific visions differ, the common element is the notion that in the future, the world’s most concentrated populations will occupy city environments where a digital blanket of sensors, devices and cloud-connected data are brought together to enhance the living experience for all. Smart concepts encompass key elements of what enable effective city ecosystems – from traffic c

Older cars in urban areas not to blame for harmful emissions, claims the RAC Foundation. The motoring research body says that a study it commissioned shows that scrapping the oldest cars owned by people living in towns and cities would only have a negligible effect on air quality. An analysis of MOT information for 22 million individual cars has enabled a team of academics, led by Professor Jillian Anable of the University of Leeds, to use mileage, emissions and registered keeper data to map ex

The Year of Engineering will see government and industry offer young people across the UK direct experiences of engineering in a push to tackle skills gap during 2018. Industry partners include companies in technology, healthcare, food production, energy, culture and transport. Partners such as Siemens, the Science Museum Group, Ocado, Usborne, BAE Systems and Crossrail have already pledged their support. Activities will include large-sale outreach program

The House of Commons Transport Committee is to look at how digital transport service platforms can enable the provision of Mobility as a Service, or MaaS. Digital platforms are increasingly being used to deliver a variety of transport services, ranging from niche online car and bike-sharing schemes to high profile taxi and private hire smartphone apps. The Transport Committee’s inquiry will look the potential of integrated, multi-mode MaaS apps, and ways of overcoming barriers to im

Most people regard rail electrification as an unquestionably good thing but ask those living with Great Western electrification and you’ll get a different answer. Indeed, so ugly is the overhead line equipment, train operator Great Western Railway is trying to pretend that the line hasn’t been electrified. Take this Famous Five-themed ad depicting a new IEP train passing over what is presumably the River Thames. Not a ghastly mast or wire in sight! Schoolteachers have to be vigila

While the push to deliver new homes and retrofit existing communities is high on the political agenda, if not actually happening in practice, we need a conversation about the kind of places that we build. Research carried out by Local Government Information Unit (LGiU) and the Ramblers found that local authorities want to build places that encourage walking and active travel. Developers do not always share these priorities, however, and many councils feel the mismatch is a challenge in achieving

Shell Oil has announced the launch of a new on-forecourt Electric Vehicle (EV) rapid charging service - Shell Recharge. The service is available at three petrol stations, one in the London area, Shell Holloway, Shell Whyteleafe, in Surrey, and Shell Derby, with a further seven opening within Greater London and Reading by the end of 2017. Shell describes the move as the very start of its entry into the alternate fuel market, acknowledging that the chargers will be available at just 10 of its 1,0

Active travel will enable cities to spend less on building, maintaining, and upgrading their infrastructure by replacing congested urban road networks and car parking infrastructure, according to a new report by technology company City Science. Helping incorporate higher levels of physical activity into the daily life of the city, walking and cycling can reduce regional healthcare costs, says the report. Some of these benefits might be readily captured by conventional transport planning impact

Replacing private car traffic with new shared mobility services in urban areas can dramatically reduce the number of cars needed, significantly cut CO2 emissions and free public land for uses other than parking – without making it more difficult for users to get from door to door. This latest report from the International Transport Forum at the OECD, presented at Smarter Travel LIVE!, examines how the optimised use of new on-demand shared transport modes could change the future of mobilit

A new set of road use rules devised specifically for London is among the ideas proposed by an independent commission studying ways of making the capital’s highways work more efficiently. A ‘Movement Code’ is one of a series of policies proposed by the Commission on the Future of London’s Roads and Streets, convened by the Centre for London think-tank with the aim of developing new thinking on what can be done to manage the conflicting pressures on the capital's surface t

Brighton & Hove Buses has made its bus guide easier to read for customers with sight impairments. The bus company has produced large print A3-sized of Bus Times, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The bus company commissioned Able and Willing, 70% of whose workforce has some kind of disability, to print the larger scale version. Graham Outlon, head of Brighton & Hove Guide Dogs, said: “Some of our members told Brighton & Hove Buses that Bus Times is a really use

The Transport Committee has launched an inquiry into the licensing arrangements for community transport minibuses and the broader sustainability of the community transport sector. Community transport provides services to vulnerable and potentially isolated people. Service operators range from small community groups with a single vehicle to large community transport organisations (CTOs), whose sole purpose is the provision of transport services, often delivered through competitively tendered con

Commuters in London are being made to contemplate the experience of asylum seekers fleeing the war in Syria by a film being projected at King’s Cross Tube station in London.  The Bureaucracy of Angels, by London-based artists Broomberg and Chanarin is the latest commission from Art on the Underground. It will run on a screen in the station until 25 November.  The 12-minute film records the demolition of 100 migrant boats in Sicily in the winter of 2016. The boats arrived carryi

Smarter Travel LIVE! 2017 offers an expertly-crafted overview of need-to know people, initiatives, products and services – all in one place Resources are squeezed, time is precious and expectations upon local authorities and transport professionals increase.  The travelling public assumes that everything about their travel experience can, and should be, improved through the smart (and positive) implementation of technological innovation.  But is it really that easy? The t

Dockless bike sharing start-up oBike has launched in Oxford, providing cyclists and cyclists-to-be with a cost effective, convenient and sustainable way of travelling around the city.   Following substantial liaison with the local authorities, oBike will roll out its dockless bike sharing scheme across the city on an indefinite trial basis. Haroon Khan, Business Development Lead for oBike Uk, said: 'We are extremely excited to launch oBike in Oxford. Building on from our successes in

The unlikely announcement that an upmarket vacuum-cleaner manufacturer is venturing into the electric vehicle (EV) market is a great metaphor for the scale of disruption and sheer unpredictability of our changing financial models. Did any of us predict Dyson would invest £1bn in battery technology alone over the next five years?  It will be interesting to see how far Dyson’s enterprise will fully immerse itself in this emerging sector. Will vehicles (and even batteries) be desi

The Department for Transport has this week published its Summary Report on the Impacts of the Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF), which indicates that the Fund successfully supported projects that reduced car use, increased walking and cycling levels, boosted bus patronage, supported local economies and cut carbon emissions. Published figures suggest that LSTF investments 'achieved high value for money', says the report. In 2011, the Department launched the £540 million LSTF to i

Propelmee, an autonomous mobility software provider with specialist expertise in perception, will unveil its last mile delivery pod ‘Go4’ at the Smarter Travel show in Milton Keynes on 19 & 20 October. ‘Go4’ will appear on the ‘Street of the Future’ showcasing the first demonstration platform of Propelmee’s unique and highly robust autonomous mobility capabilities. ‘Go4’ will go live in a public demo in Cambridge later this year as a foot

More than 300 delegates attended Healthy Streets at Walthamstow Assembly Hall last week to explore the connections between public health and transport strategies. The event, organised by Landor LINKS and hosted by Waltham Forest Council, brought together council officers, urban designers, public health specialists, transport planners, consultants, academics, equipment developers, innovators and campaigners. The programme encompassed health-led street design, re-allocation of road space, behavio

Detailed plans for two segregated Cycle Superhighways stretching out to the west and south-east of the capital have been unveiled by London Mayor Sadiq Khan. The 6km CS9 would link Kensington Olympia to Brentford while the 4km CS4 would run from Tower Bridge to Greenwich.  Transport for London (TfL) estimate that CS9 would cost around £70m, which would include extending the route to Hounslow, while CS4 would cost up to £55m and, subject to the results of consultations, construc

It’s time to face up to the truth about ticketing - first generation smartcards only improved the passenger experience at the margins, even after all the initial hype with Oyster. Some would say that even that scheme nearly threw the baby out with the bathwater by introducing a flat fare for buses.  This reduced the revenue-raising potential below what it was with graduated fares. Just think for a moment how few large-area flat fares there are in the rest of deregulated UK. Edinburgh

The winners of the inaugural Healthy Streets Awards were announced at Walthamstow Assembly Hall last night, with a host of inspiring entries gaining recognition. The trophies were presented following the Healthy Streets conference and exhibition, hosted by the London Borough of Waltham Forest and organised by Landor LINKS. Among those receiving trophies was Caroline Russell, London Assembly member and Green Party councillor at the London Borough of Islington, who was named Healthy Streets Champ

Jesse Norman MP, appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Department for Transport in June 2017, will be giving a keynote speech and taking questions at Smarter Travel LIVE! on 19 October. As Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Roads, Local Transport and Devolution, the minister is responsible for buses cycling and walking policy, Highways England and strategic roads, local roads policy and funding, road safety, transport and the environment and transport technology (incl

Santander Cycles has announced the five finalists in its Santander Cycles University Challenge - an initiative that offers Santander UK university partners the chance to develop their own bespoke cycle hire scheme on campus. The University of Birmingham, Brunel University London, the University of Portsmouth, the University of Surrey and Swansea University have been shortlisted from 23 entrants for the chance to win capital funding for a cycle scheme. Each of the five finalists must now run a c

Five active travel schemes have been awarded funding totalling £22.5m by the Scottish government. The shortlisted projects, to be delivered by charity Sustrans, will receive 50% of the total costs. Two of the schemes are in Edinburgh while the others are in Glasgow, Stirling and Inverness. Work on each project is due to begin in the next two months, with Inverness City Active Travel Network (Highland Council) set for completion by summer 2020. Meanwhile, Walk, Cycle, Live (Stirling Counci

In the twentieth century, planning for the city was about planning for the car. In recent years, however, the true impact of this approach has become only too apparent. From a changing global climate to the obesity epidemic, an over-reliance on the private automobile is driving many of the greatest challenges of our time. With rapidly rising urban populations, these problems are set to intensify - that is unless radical changes are made.  At the same time, the case for non-motorised modes

While there has been plenty of debate over what Mobility as a Service (MaaS) could look like in the future, there are relatively few case studies on projects that have so far been delivered.  At Smarter Travel LIVE! I’ll be sharing my insights on a trial that Atkins ran in Cambridge. For many, MaaS is associated with mobile phone apps including integrated payment and journey planning. But providing the technology will not, on its own, ensure modal shift or an uptake of a MaaS servic

“We’re happies not hippies,“ is the message driving through the streets of Brighton on the side of a bus. The bright geometric colours sported by the latest of Brighton & Hove Buses’ special edition buses are a celebration the south coast resort’s bohemian lifestyle. The artwork has been designed by artists Art+Believe, who previously painted the Old Steine Bus shelter in front of Brighton Pavilion for the bus company. Brighton & Hove Buses marketing manag

With less than six weeks to go before Smarter Travel LIVE! on 19 and 20 October, this year’s Smarter Travel LIVE! event is bringing together the widest ever range of key players to spark dialogue and debate. The convergence of digital technology with the travel and transport sector is catalysing the most radical and sophisticated possibilities in decades, and Smarter Travel LIVE! is the place to be for those who need to be engaged in what is happening across the UK and beyond. Such rapid

Free guided walks are being offered by Transport for London (TfL) to encourage people to explore the capital on foot and to highlight the benefits of walking for health and wellbeing.  The Mayor’s draft Transport Strategy aims to increase the proportion of people walking, cycling and taking public transport to 80% by 2041, compared with 64% now. “To make this commitment a reality, a wide range of improvements to London’s streets, junctions and public spaces are underway,

People living in Belfast are being encouraged to take up walking and cycling as a way of leading a healthier life. Northern Ireland’s Public Health Agency (PHA) has developed a Community Active Travel Programme, which is being delivered by sustainable transport charity Sustrans.

Scottish Government statistics on children’s physical activity reveals almost 9 out 10 of children do not meet the government’s physical activity guidelines. Only 11% of children surveyed by the ‘Growing Up in Scotland’ study met the recommended 60 minutes of activity per day. Meanwhile, the latest ‘Hands Up Scotland&r

The Automobile Association (AA) has produced a version of the Highway Code specifically for cyclists. A recent AA-Populus Survey revealed that 21% of AA members cycle, with one-in-ten saying they cycle between one and five miles each week.

The evolution of technology has opened up the transport industry to endless possibilities. As this grows, so too does the need to address customer choice and empowerment. But is industry doing enough to understand the people who use and rely on transport services?  Understanding the customer experience is arguably more important now than ever. A web of conflicting interests need to be addressed, from traditional engineering and safety considerations to the new and future digital landscape,

A new report by Landor LINKS/LTT provides a state of play survey and analysis on how the concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is developing in the UK, and the likely implications for traditional transport provision. The First Annual Survey of MaaS in the UK is available in printed and digital Kindle editions for the first time for a Landor LINKS/LTT publication.  “The potential prize for a MaaS system is enormous and the obvious enthusiasm for the concept amongst transport profes

Reported sexual offences on trains have more than doubled in the past five years, according to British Transport Police (BTP) figures obtained by the BBC. The police statistics show 1,448 offences were reported in 2016-17, up from 650 in 2012-2013. The majority of the incidents were sexual assaults on f

Best Behaviour Change Initiative Award Big Commuting Challenge – Travelwest North West Leading the Way with Active Travel – Derry City & Strabane District Council Vehicle Idling Action project – Green Gumption on behalf of the Idling Action Partnership Destination Walking & Cycling Project – Visit Isle of Wight Ltd Build A Bike – Southwark Council Heathrow Commuter Goes Mobile –Landing in your term

Transport strategies that turn vehicle-dominated streets into ‘people places’ will do much to tackle the health and social challenges that we face, believes Lucy Saunders Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has placed the Healthy Streets Approach at the heart of his 25-year Transport Strategy. This will require all transport decisions and investments to benefit health by improving the 10 Healthy Street Indicators (right). Making public health the driving force behind a transport strategy may

A guide offering organisations in the Square Mile practical advice on how to get employees to switch to active travel is out now. 'Safer in the City' – Best Practice Guide 2017 has been developed by the City of London Corporation in partnership with the Active City Network – a forum created to promote safe active travel. The guide is full of case studies and interviews highlighting initiatives in a number of organisations across the City of London including the Bank of England, Nomu

Plans have been published to reconfigure the busy Fiveways junction in Croydon, south London, with the aim of making it safer for all road users.  Transport for London (TfL) and Croydon Council say the proposed improvements would help to reduce delays and congestion. They point out that the Fiveways area is often busy, with motorists and bus users experiencing congestion at peak times, especially on weekends when large numbers of visitors go to and from the retail parks along Purley Way.

Cambridge could become a centre for driverless public transport systems according to two reports released this week, which have the backing of local authorities and the city’s research community. One report discusses the Affordable Very Rapid Transit (AVRT) concept developed by Professor John Miles of the University of Cambridge’s department of civil engineering.  The other looks at the potential for autonomous vehicles to operate on the Cambridgeshire busway. The reports were

Women working in passenger transport are among the winners in the 2017 FTA everywoman in Transport & Logistics Awards, which took place at the Marriot Hotel in London's Grosvenor Square last night. The awards programme was first launched to raise awareness of the varied opportunities within transport and logistics, while creating visible role models to inspire and encourage more women to pursue a career in the industry. Maxin

The need to create healthy streets is at the heart of London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s first transport strategy, which sets out proposals to reshape transport in the capital over the next 25 years. The Draft Transport Strategy includes proposals for ‘Liveable Neighbourhoods’ that encourage walking, cycling and the use of public transport and to increase opportunities to use streets as public spaces and for play. The mayor wants to create ‘Healthy Routes’ - attra

The Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) has announced that Paul Campion has been appointed as chief executive officer.  Campion joins the TSC from his position leading IBM’s Global Financing in the UK and Ireland. IBM Global Financing is an IT financing house that helps IBM’s clients and partners optimise the financial cases for their IT transformations. He has previously worked in a variety of technical, marketing and sales operational leadership roles for IBM, both in the UK an

Brighton & Hove Buses and the Pride LGBT festival have worked together to launch the Diversity Bus, which is the latest incarnation of the Pride Festival Bus. The bus carries the message #moreincommon, which was set up in the aftermath of MP Jo Cox’s murder a year ago. It aims to demonstrate how much more people have in common than that which divides them. The Diversity Bus will be available for partners in the city for community events where the messages on the bus can be of some val

The EU project Opticities develops and implements real-time decision tool for traffic management based on dynamic simulation. The design is a combination of Grand Lyon’s existing traffic management system and Aimsun Online, which is developed and supported by TSS-Transport Simulation Systems. The tool allows the anticipative monitoring of the traffic in the network based on predetermined warnings by predicting the next hour in real time. By Emmanuel Bert The Opticities project has brought

A major change to traffic flow in the City of London came into effect this week with only buses and cycles being allowed to pass through Bank Junction outside Bank Tube station between 7am and 7pm Monday to Fridays. The restriction could be the precursor to a complete re-design of the junction by 2021 that would see the removal of all motorised traffic. Until this week the six-arm junction handled about 1,600 motor vehicles every hour of the day on weekdays. In the AM peak hour (08.00-09.00) th

A traffic ban at Bank Junction in the City of London comes into force today. Only buses and cycles will be allowed to use the junction from 7am to 7pm Monday to Friday under the experimental traffic order imposed by the City of London Corporation. This marks the first phase of plans to totally re-design the junction by 2021, which could result in the removal of all motorised traffic. The 18-month trial will cut the number of casualties and improve air quality, without impacting on traffic flow

‘Smarter choices’ travel behaviour change policies have been in the news again recently: the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) reported that several low-cost behaviour change interventions designed to reduce commuting to Heathrow Airport made no measurable difference (“Researchers question value of ‘smarter choice’ interventions” LTT 03 Feb). BIT’s comments on evaluation methods (don’t trust self-reported surveys) have re-opened a long-running contro

Recently there has been a paradigm shift in approaches to active travel within the transport and urban planning industry. Just five years ago, cycling was still seen as a niche pursuit, often accommodated by paint on tarmac and the liberal sprinkling of ‘Cyclists Dismount’ signs across the nation, while walking was considered something one did from the door to the car.  With growing awareness of active travel’s myriad benefits for air quality, public health, reducing cong

A £1.2bn plan to make cycling and walking mainstream modes of travel for shorter journeys has been published today by the government.  The Department for Transport (DfT) has pledged to double cycling, reduce bike-related accidents and increase the proportion of 5 to 10 year-olds walking to school to 55% by 2025. Funding will be allocated to a wide range of projects designed to create safer cycling routes, new cycle links between city centres, provide more cycle proficiency and safet

There has been plenty of debate across West Yorkshire and beyond about the Leeds to Bradford Cycle Superhighway, which was completed last summer. The 23km route – the flagship of the CityConnect project – is the largest scheme of its kind outside of London. Questions have been raised about the route’s impact on traffic levels, the safety of bus stop bypasses for passengers and whether it will encourage people who have never cycled before to get in the saddle for everyday journ

A new smartphone app will enable station designers to experience for themselves the challenges faced by people with eye conditions. The Eyeware app, launched today, was developed in collaboration with sight loss charity RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People).  Virtual filters give users an accurate sense of what is like to negotiate urban environments with conditions such as diabetic retinopathy, retinitis pigmentosa, cataracts and glaucoma. The filters are being used at the Tran

Work to make Westminster Bridge more pedestrian and cyclist-friendly is due to start at the end of March. The 155-year-old structure will become the fourth bridge in central London to have segregated cycle lanes, with the south-side junction re-modeled to make it easier to cross for pedestrians. The re-worked layout will improve pedestrian access with three upgraded pedestrian crossings and new pedestria

Sedentary lifestyles are too common these days, and this comes at great cost to our health and to the public purse. But building in 20 minutes of recommended physical activity every day isn’t always easy. One way to change this would be to make physical activity part of our daily routine, and this is where the PASTA project comes in. The EU-funded project PASTA – Physical Activity Through Sustainable Transport Approaches – aims to connect transport and health by promoting activ

Newcastle City Council is planning further improvements for pedestrians at Newcastle Central Station. The city council wants to improve walking links to the station from the south, at the back of the station, with a new public square around the Stephenson Monument and improvements to the Orchard Street tunnel. Ged Bell, cabinet member for investment and development at Newcastle City Council, said: “Improved walking links to the south would ensure that the Stephenson Quarter and land on For

The government has today announced 64m funding for a host of active travel projects across the UK. Big winners include Sheffield City Region Combined Authority, which will get £7.5m and Bristol City Council £6.9m. In a consortium bid Blackpool Council will get £7.498m with Buckinghamshire County Council, Hertfordshire County Council, North East Combined Authority, Stoke on Trent, West Sussex, Hampshire, Leicester, North Lincolnshire and Surrey county councils. Landor LINK

The UK’s first demonstration of a ‘teleoperated’ autonomous vehicle service for people with reduced mobility has been completed as part of the GATEway project (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment), which is being led by TRL. The demonstration, which took place at the InterContinental Hotel in the Royal Borough of Greenwich, used an autonomous-enabled Toyota Prius. It ma

Vehicles fitted with autonomous technologies will bring most benefit to the personal mobility of the disabled (56%), the visually impaired (42%) and the elderly (30%), according to a survey of the British public conducted by car-maker Nissan. Improved mobility for everyone was considered to be the primary advantage of autonomous cars, accounting for the sentiment of more than 60% of respondents. This benefit outweighed concerns of the possibility of a malfunction (49%), or not having full cont

There is much about the concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) that has been generating widespread enthusiasm worldwide from many different interests. From everyone concerned with climate change and pollution, to those involved with transport sharing service schemes from car to bike, to rail and bus operators and public transport authorities, to transport ticketing and payments software suppliers, and even car manufacturers recognising the potential for car pools. These are just some of the man

2016 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jane Jacobs, the great writer and urbanist. It’s fair to say that this landmark hasn’t received all the attention that it deserves, what with one or two other events dominating the news, but for anyone involved in planning, designing and building our towns and cities it is an anniversary worth celebrating because her ideas affect us all. Or, at least, they should.  Jane Jacobs is best known for her 1961 book, The Death and Life

The possible health impacts of road traffic made front page news this week, as Canadian researchers reported a link between living close to main roads and dementia. “Busy roads can cause dementia,” declared Daily Express, exaggerating the findings of the research, which was observational and so did not establish causality. “Millions of people are at risk of dementia because they live near a busy road, scientists warn today,” said the paper. “Heath experts believe

The most successful authorities will reduce reliance on government and take greater local control of how they fund their programmes. They will make a strong case for sustainable travel, build strong partnerships, unlock other sources of funding and develop new ways of working. They will be bold, they will learn from experience and they will focus relentlessly on what really works. Sustainable travel matters What do we mean by sustainable travel? It is not just about individual modes, but inste

Wherever transport infrastructure or the speed or volume of traffic act as physical or psychological barriers to the movement of people, reduced mobility may occur, as well as less use of streets as social spaces due to concerns for physical safety. To investigate such negative impacts, Street Mobility is a £1.28m ‘Design for Wellbeing’ research project funded by three research councils (the EPSRC, ESRC, and AHRC), as part of the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Cross-Council Prog

Planning transport for pupils with special educational needs (SEN) can be a time consuming activity for local authorities. But help could be at hand from a new cloud-based system – Q Routes. Geoff Dudley explores the technology and asks if it could have wider applications in planning transport networks In times of intense austerity for local authorities the cost of school transport can be a necessary but highly expensive item. Within this type of expenditure, the specific and detailed req

The benefits of pedestrian-friendly streets and innovative traffic management measures were recognised at an awards ceremony staged by built environment network The Academy of Urbanism on Wednesday night.   Among the winners was Wood Street in Walthamstow, north-east London, which took the Great Street award. The judging panel noted “traffic management had made the street more attractive to all”. Wood Street has been given a new lease of life in recent year thanks to £1.5

Says Tom van Vuren: It was of course inevitable – that our Modelling World family would at some point also include Tomorrow’s World. And although we tend to peek into the future in our traditional Modelling World events, this new conference in the series is an opportunity to bring in new perspectives from organisations and players not immediately involved in delivery of modelling, data and visualisation in today’s world. 

A scheme that sees Croydon Council close a residential road so families can play safely outdoors has been voted the best in London. Croydon introduced Play Streets by making it easier for residents to apply for temporary road closures. More than 50 children and their parents from Love Lane in the Woodside area held their first Play Street event in September 2015. The event enabled residents to enjoy games in the sunshine while road was temporarily closed.  Love Lane’s Play Street ha

There is now considerable interest in how the transport sector makes places as well as connects them, says Jonathan Bray, Director, Urban Transport Group, in conversation with Juliana O'Rourke, programme developer for the Better Places Symposium and a director of the Better Places Network. The past focus on connecting places has been expressed via an interest in journey times and capacity and, although these issues remain important, there is now more attention paid to how well-designed and appr

The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport  (CILT) presented its annual awards last night. The CILT’s Annual Awards, presented at the Lancaster London last night, recognise achievement in logistics, transport and operations.Alan Braithwaite, chairman of global supply chain specialist LCP Consulting, received the CILT’s premier accolade, the Sir Robert Lawrence Award. Other winners on the night included Transport for Greater Manchester, Jaguar Land Rover, Reading Buses an

Transport is experiencing a period of disruption. New thinking, new business models, new technologies and new channels for sharing and engagement are combining to offer real potential for positive change. Join us on 24 November to meet expert international speakers and hear them explain how towns and cities can make the most of these new opportunites. Become part of the Better Places Network to remain involved with news, developments and best practice. Why?

For Mobility as a Service to succeed in cities, it should not just aim to meet the needs of travellers and service providers, but also contribute to the livability of places. James Gleave, Foresight Analyst, Transport Systems Catapult The Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) has defined Mobility as a Service (MaaS) as 'using a digital interface to source and manage the provision of a transport related service(s) which meets the mobility requirements of a customer'. There are two core strengths

The models we use today, says Neffendorf, in conversation with Modelling World programme director Juliana O'Rourke, tend to be based on how people behave today, or are projections from trends, or from cross-sectional analysis of people's current behaviour. But the disruptions that the transport sector is facing, and the dramatic changes in society, technology and information, mean that these no longer hold true. 'We must think about what is changing, and how we get to where we need to be. Devel

Friday the 4th of November will see the first ever opportunity for LTT’s specialist community of local transport professionals to come together and explore current and prospective challenges in the planning, management and delivery of effective local transport provision. An exciting format is being shaped for the ground-breaking event to be held at The King’s Centre in Oxford, which will feature a mix of keynote presentations and mapping of issues, a TV Question Time panel discussio

A research programme is seeking to identify the key components needed to develop community wellbeing. Place and space are essential elements in developing a feeling of community wellbeing. This was among the initial findings of a programme carried out by The What Works Centre for Wellbeing, a consortium of four universities and five civic organisations. The team, which is carrying out a Community Wellbeing Evidence Programme, contacted an “extensive national mailing list of stakeholders&

London’s cycle network must be usable by the majority, including disabled cyclists using trikes, handcycles or tandems, argues Isabelle Clement Cycling infrastructure is often designed with the fit and the brave in mind – as a result, disabled people are routinely denied access to adequate cycling opportunities. However, research by Transport for London (TfL) shows that in the capital 15% of disabled people use a cycle to get around occasionally or often, compared with 18% of non-di

The Campaign to Protect Rural England has used an article on The Guardian website to urge local government leaders to reduce travel times by public transport from towns to larger urban areas to secure their economic success. The CPRE uses the article to praise London boroughs that have allocated new housing according to where areas "are graded on a scale which takes into account factors such as walking time to public transport, as well as number and frequency of services at nearby stops". It wa

The character of London is changing, with gyratories, large roundabouts and one-way systems giving way to people-friendly public spaces, says Esther Kurland Although we might not realise it, we are pretty good at creating excellent public spaces and streets in the UK. I recently hosted a delegation from NACTO (the National Association of City Transportation Officials), a coalition of city transportation departments in 46 cities across the USA, Canada and Mexico.   NACTO were producing a n

I’d like to share my journey into the world of local transport and, like Ellis Dodwell in LTT703, it’s not entirely conventional. Not only did I never plan on being in this industry, I specifically spent most of my life avoiding it! I was born the same year as the company I now help to run, which my parents both founded and worked for. Even in my teenage years I was engulfed in ‘transport stuff’ that they engaged in and I wanted nothing to do with.  When my friends

Creating places rather than mere developments is vital for the future success of the capital as well as the health of its citizens, argues Patricia Brown  Cities such as London are complex ecosystems, buffered by competing forces of needs. At its base level, the ‘Maslow Hierarchy of Needs’ for cities is relatively simple; our citizens need an education, an affordable place to live, and the ability to feel safe and secure as they move around their city.  Yet over the past

The UK Smart Mobility Lab in Greenwich has been presented with an award by Intelligent Systems (UK). The lab has been set up by TRL to provide a real world test bed for testing connected and automated vehicle technologies. It has been created with the support of the Royal Borough of Greenwich, CCAV, Innovate UK and DfT. Key partners include RSA, Direct Line, Telefonica, Shell, Sony, Jaguar Land Rover and Oxbotica. ITS (UK) is a not-for-profit public/private sector association that provides a

Councils across England are being asked to bid for a share of the Department for Transport’s £60m Sustainable Travel Access Fund. The fund has been launched to encourage councils to offer sustainable transport initiatives which can improve access to jobs, skills, training and education. The cash will support projects over three years from 2017 to 2020.

The UK is out of shape. According to a recent study by the University of Washington, almost two-thirds of English adults are either obese or overweight. In western Europe, only Malta and Iceland beat us when it comes to obesity. This trend is forcing the Government to pay attention, not least because of the gigantic costs it inflicts on the NHS. It seems that every other week brings a new scare story about diet and nutrition with sugar the latest villain and a soft-drink sugar tax duly announced

There appears to be a widespread view in the UK that cycling is simply not possible if you have a disability. This assumption is very often incorrect, particularly considering the availability of adapted cycles. For many people with a mobility impairment, cycles (including bicycles) are in fact mobility aids which provide much greater freedom of movement and personal safety than walking. However, there is clearly also a serious issue with infrastructure which does not cater for cyclists with di

A cycling project designed to help people with dementia is achieving “positive results”, according to David Dansky, head of training & development at Cycle Training UK.  The not-for-profit co-operative runs Positive Spin sessions in parks and on local roads in Clapham Common and Finsbury Park in the capital. “The project is promoted to the local community with posters and flyers and visits to care homes and sheltered housing,” says Dansky. “A team of cycle

Hundreds of women took to the saddle thanks to a month-long cycling initiative, reports Transport for Greater Manchester’s (TfGM), writes Patrick. Women on Wheels (WOW) sessions were staged by TfGM across the region including at the Manchester Velodrome. The campaign sought to narrow the gap between the numbers of men and women who cycle. Statistics show men who take the bike to work outnumber women by four to one. TfGM says some of the events were so popular they sold out almost immedi

David Bull has retired as Thurrock Council’s director of planning and transportation. He joined Thurrock in 2012 from Birmingham City Council where he worked from 2002 as director for sustainability, transportation and partnerships. He previously worked in transport planning and management for the London boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham and Hounslow.

The operation of the new Night Tube service will have to be robustly monitored to ensure crime and fear of crime does not threaten or deter people, especially women and minorities, advises the London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee The

With global warming and public health becoming issues of growing concern, we are seeing a shift from car-dominated transport to active travel. Increasing fuel prices and obesity levels are adding to the pressure to make this change sooner rather than later. In particular, schools need to encourage pupils to make active travel choices and rely less upon cars and public transport. “With improvements in software and data, head teachers can quickly work out safe walking routes and distances t

Innovate UK is to invest £260,000 in developing an app which will help disabled rail passengers obtain real-time assistance during their journey. SMART (Spontaneous Mobile Accessible Rail Travel) is an 18 month project which will provide a demonstrator and pilot trial for a means of enabling disabled persons to request assistance when travelling by train. Current practices mean that assistance needs to be booked 24 hours in advance, reducing flexibility in travel planning as well as caus

A Hampshire County Council road safety campaign inspired a Farnborough teenager to create the latest in a series of videos for her peers. Meet Norm is a series of videos created for the county by animation company Global. The videos feature Norm and his friends Dangerous Dave and Abby and are designed to promote and reinforce key road safety messages.  Capital Radio launched a competition for Hampshire’s 17-24 ye

Road safety, traffic management, cycle parking and data visualisation systems are among the many systems in contention for the Intertraffic Innovation Awards. The competition is open to innovative systems that will be on show at the exhibition, which takes place at RAI Amsterdam between 5-8 April. An international jury has scrutinised 91 candidates and shortlisted 15 finalists. Awards will be presented in five categories – Infrastructure, Traffic Management, Safety, Parking, and Smar

A travel planning partnership between Liftshare and Stagecoach Midlands has been successful in breaking down barriers to employment, significantly increasing both sustainable travel and economic growth at a North Warwickshire Business Park. Demand for growth by major occupiers at Birch Coppice Business Park had generated the need to employ over 1,000 people, but the recruitment drive was being hampered by a local labour shortage. But there was a large group of unemployed people living 12 miles

The government’s spending review has highlighted the importance of evaluating sustainable transport programmes in a transparent and independent way, believes Jon Parker at consultant Integrated Transport Planning (ITP). It is also vital to clearly set out how a legacy will be delivered beyond the lifetime of any funded project,  adds Parker, who will be speaking at Smarter Travel LIVE!  “One of the areas where there is often scope for improvement relates to the implementat

Beat the Street, the programme that gets residents to compete against each other to see who can walk, cycle or run the furthest, has released figures that show that significant numbers of participants are driving less. The programme, run by the firm Intelligent Health, involves players tapping a special card on sensors called Beat Boxes placed about half a mile apart around their town. At least two Beat Boxes must be tapped in an hour for a player to score points for their team. As well as comp

Vehicular traffic may be banned from streets outside more schools in East Lothian at the start and end of the school day, under council proposals.  In 2014 the council introduced experimental Traffic Regulation Orders (TROs) to ban moving traffic on two roads outside schools in Haddington between 08.30 and 09.30 and 15.00 and 16.00. The aim of the ‘school streets’ is to improve road safety and encourage children to walk/cycle to school. Last summer councillors agreed to make t

The Green Party’s London mayoral candidate Sian Berry has committed to creating more ‘people-friendly' streets if elected. Berry made the commitment while on a walk through south London today organised with Living Streets, a charity that promotes everyday walking.Berry said: “I have long been a fan of the work that Living Streets does to improve walking in London. Two-thirds of Londoners live within a five-minute walk of their high street, and for many of us that’s what m

Are you interested in contributing to make driverless vehicles secure, smarter, and efficient? Then the Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Challenge might be your chance. The Transport Systems Catapult (TSC) and the Chartered Institution of Highways and Transportation (CIHT) are seeking innovative ideas from postgraduates, professionals, and academics, which could accelerate the introduction of autonomous vehicles onto public roads in a competition that’s running on IMExchange. The IMExcha

Low paid workers in the capital are being are disproportionately affected by rising transport costs, according to a new report. The report – Living on the Edge – was commissioned by London Councils, London TravelWatch and Trust for London. It states that while people on a low wage are excluded from central London due to the high cost of housing they commute to low-paid cleaning jobs and manual work in hotels and offices located in Zone 1. One in five London workers, equaling 1

Researchers have claimed that improving public transport accessibility reduces the risk of depression, especially for women and the elderly. The research published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health is the result of an analysis of the levels of consumption of anti-depressants in different areas in Turin in north Italy. The researchers found that, whilst individual social characteristics such as employment, education and housing tenure have the stronges

A project to develop fully automated, driverless vehicles on the streets of Milton Keynes has won the 2015 Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) Automotive Award for Innovation. The LUTZ Pathfinder project, from the Transport Systems Catapult, is trialling two-seater electric ‘pods’, which will provide public transport along pedestrian routes, for example between train stations and city centres.  Pathfinder, which is overseen by the Transport Systems Catapult on be

Disabled travellers can now use an app to get priority booking on black cabs via a partnership between the assist-Mi and Gett apps. Users of assist-Mi now have access to Gett’s premium corporate black cab solution, meaning they will gave waiting times of less than five minutes. The service also offers consolidated reporting, including instant email receipts, which the app providers say will minimise the hassle of compiling expenses or Access to Work taxi claims manually.

The Intelligent City Mobility event starts with a plenary session, called The Car and the City, which addresses the question: What role should the car have in future urban mobility? To answer this question we must first understand why cities exist. Quite simply, they are unsurpassed when it comes to bringing people together. Their unique ability to comfortably accommodate so many people so close to each other makes them unparalleled as places to shop, work, learn, trade, create

That’s the kernel of a conversation the Landor LINKS team had earlier this year in Birmingham. A group of senior transport and urban professionals were debating the potential offered by ‘Intelligent Mobility’ to transform the relationship between cars and urban space. They were asking if it will improve the places we live and work, or is a once in a career opportunity going to be wasted?  Unsurprisingly, everyone admitted they had nothing like a complete picture of a

Several streets in Edinburgh are now closed to cars during peak hours as part of a bid to make it safer for children to walk to school at the start and end of the day. The first phase of the School Streets scheme was launched on 22 September, which was World Car Free Day. The initiative aims to create a safer, more pleasant environment. The scheme promotes travel to school by walking and cycling. It is hoped this will, in turn, reduce congestion and pollution in the area. City of Edinburgh Coun

Transport Systems Catapult has unveiled its first LUTZ Pathfinder pod to commuters outside Milton Keynes train station, as part of a project trialling self-driving technology. The pod will now be delivered to Oxford University’s Mobile Robotics Group to begin the installation of the vehicle's autonomous control system before undergoing a series of calibration tests to become the first fully automated vehicles on public pedestrianised areas in the UK.

The House of Commons Transport Select Committee has launched an inquiry into surface transport at airports. The inquiry will examine whether strategic connections to airports fulfil current and future requirements in terms of range and capacity. The committee says it is interested to assess the effectiveness of the government's approach to planning surface access to airports, as well as understanding whether the governme

My goal is a kinder, more civilised world. My focus is on road safety, as roads are where I’m most likely to die early. I’ve twice been injured on roads while cycling by drivers cutting me up from the left. Road deaths and serious injuries in Britain are rising, especially for the vulnerable, such as cyclists and older people. The costs associated with our dangerous roads are huge – the equivalent of £500+ per person per year if we take into account injury and damage onl

New cycling infrastructure must consider the needs of disabled cyclists, says Isabelle Clement, director of charity Wheels for Wellbeing. The 2011 census revealed that 5% of all cycle commuters in England had some kind of disability, she points out.  The better the cycling environment, the higher the proportion of disabled people that commute, says Clement. “Where provision is inclusive, disabled and non-disabled people get about their daily business! However, like disabled pedestria

Three companies are in the running for the new East Anglia rail franchise the DfT wants to significantly reduce London-Norwich journey times, it is announced today. Abellio, First and National Express have reached the pre-qualification stage for the franchise that covers intercity services, the Stansted Express, Great Eastern suburban rail services, West Anglia services from London to Cambridge and King's Lynn, and regional services with branches to the coast. They will receive an invitation to

Car clubs, electric bike hire and a walking to school campaign have been awarded a share of £3.9m by the DfT. Car sharing organisation CarPlus will receive £1m to set up 15 new car clubs across England, including extending  the Newcastle car club across the North East.  Schemes will also be introduced across Derbyshire, the Isle of Wight, and to Newbury in Berkshire. CarPlus is due to publish the full list of clubs imminently. The DfT said it expects all 15 car clubs to b

Questions have been raised about the future of travel plans for new developments after a court ruling that local authorities in England cannot require developers to pay fees towards the administration and monitoring of Section 106 planning obligations.  Many councils use fees to pay  for the costs of monitoring travel plans. The legal case centred on Oxfordshire County Council, which had required a developer to make a payment of £3,750  towards administration and monitoring

The UK’s intelligent mobility sector is being hindered by gaps in the open data available, according to a report commissioned by the Transport Systems Catapult. These gaps must be plugged if the UK is to become a global leader in intelligent mobility, which the report defines as “the smarter, greener and more efficient movement of people and goods around the world”.  There are currently obstacles relating to data access, handling and skills, states the report, prepared by

The Government has dropped plans to reduce rail service frequencies where demand is low in the north of England but is to press ahead with eliminating fare anomalies that see ticket prices in PTE areas sometimes significantly cheaper than those from stations just beyond their boundary.  The main headline-grabbing item in the invitation to tender (ITT) for the Northern and Transpennine rail franchises is the elimination of the fleet of unpopular 1980s-built Pacer trains (Class 142/3/4) from

The Government is opening the country’s road network up for the testing of driverless vehicles in an effort to win a big slice of the research and development work in this fast-developing field.  “Driverless vehicles can legally be tested on public roads in the UK today,” declares a review of the legislative environment for driverless vehicles conducted by the DfT and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). “The Department [sic] does not believe th

Government support for bus operators in Britain has been cut by £508m (15.7%) since 2010/11, according to the latest study by industry analysts TAS.  The updated Economics of bus operation report shows total spending was £2.718bn in 2013/14 as against £3.226bn in 2010/11 (adjusted for inflation).  Support for the industry falls into four categories: concessionary fares; TfL tendered services in London; local authority tendered services outside London; and Bus Servic

Transport for Greater Manchester wants to take over the management of all the conurbation’s rail stations – including the ‘crown jewel’ of Manchester Piccadilly that is managed by Network Rail. Find out more at Rail Stations and Property, Feb 26, London Network Rail owns all 97 stations of Greater Manchester’s stations but, with the exception of Manchester Piccadilly, they are managed by the train operating companies on leases matched to their franchise length. Th

Councils in England spent just over £1bn last year on the statutory concessionary travel scheme for older people and the disabled, data compiled by the Department for Communities and Local Government reveals.  Total reimbursement paid to bus operators rose to £1.06bn, up from £1.04bn in 2012/13. A further £154.5m was spent on discretionary schemes, up from £153.4m in 2012/13. Councils spent £993m on supported bus services in 2013/14, up from £934m

Government company HS2 Ltd published research last year by consultant KPMG, which concluded that building the London-West Midlands-Manchester/Leeds high-speed rail network would make the UK £15bn a year better off (LTT 20 Sep 13). The finding  seemed to clinch a vital argument for the high-speed rail lobby but the good news was quickly replaced by headlines questioning the study’s methods. Two of the country’s leading economic geographers – Henry Overman and Dan Grah

A huge funding gap has emerged between how much councils in England spend on the statutory concessionary travel scheme for older and disabled people, and how much the Government provides them for the scheme, according to the North East Combined Authority (NECA).  Officers of the combined authority and Nexus, the PTE,  say Department for Communities and Local Government data, based on returns from councils, suggest that local authorities will  pay bus operators £1.11bn in 20

London homebuyers will pay £42,000 more for a property 500m from the nearest station than they would for a similar property a further 1km away. A survey by building society Nationwide compared the value of properties with similar characteristics such as property type, age, number of bedrooms, floor area and the attractiveness of the locality as described by ACORN. It finds that the premimum for proximity to public transport is increasing, now 10.5% compared to 9.1% two years ago. A proper

MPs want a large-scale pilot of a 'total transport' scheme where different transport budgets held by health, social services, transport and other departments are pooled to improve transport provision. The recommendation comes in a new transport select committee report which also seeks a definition of 'isolated communities,' which the MPs contend exist in urban, as well as rural areas, and affects the unemployed, people on low incomes, younger people, older people and the disabled. The new

Rail passengers in the North of England could face higher fares, frequency reductions on some lightly-used lines and stations, and lower staffing levels when the new franchise commences in February 2016. The DfT and the Rail North partnership of 30 local authorities have just launched a public consultation on the new Northern and TransPennine Express franchises and the DfT has separately launched the pre-qualification process for franchise bids. “While there have been some important deve

A t the moment nowhere in the world is it legal to travel from A to B in a road vehicle that doesn’t have someone who is at least nominally in charge in the ‘driver’s seat’. But that is set to change come September, when the state legislature in California (which is currently one of four US states to allow driverless cars to operate on the public highway) is due to pass a law enabling fully automated road vehicles to move people around without even a nominal ‘driver

Our society is ageing. This should be a source of great pride to all of us as individuals as we are improving the health and well-being of a large segment of the population who in earlier generations would have died much earlier. However, as transport professionals we need to recognise how the transport system will need to adapt to the increasing numbers of older people, some of whom will continue to be quite active, whilst others will be very old indeed! Just 8% of the world’s population

Thanks to our Government’s desire for a major vanity project this country appears to be heading towards the expenditure of a huge sum of money (£45bn and counting) on the HS2 project, a scheme that many believe is unnecessary. Yet parts of our current railway infrastructure, and specifically the rolling stock that uses it, are in need of major upgrades to cater for the existing traffic that is on offer, along with the new traffic that comes along every year almost without fail. 

Councillors in Solihull are being urged to drop plans to replace signal-controlled pedestrian crossings with informal courtesy crossings as part of a public realm scheme. Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council plans to replace two signalised crossings with informal ‘courtesy crossings’ as part of the Solihull Gateway project in the town centre, focused on Station Road and Poplar Road.   But the Royal National Institute of Blind People and Guide Dogs are fighting the plans, sayi

What is the biggest change in the field of accessibility planning in the past few years? According to Simon Court, projects director at Basemap and a man who has been involved in the development of accessibility planning software for well over a decade, it’s the arrival of the ‘open data’ revolution. “Datasets used to be a bit of a cash cow for us, where it would often cost of thousands of pounds to buy the data, but we could then on-sell it to our customers. Then open da

I concluded my previous article by observing that average demand for personal daily travel has stabilised at about a thousand trips a year covering some 7,000 miles, and taking an hour of each day. This means that the future growth of travel demand will be driven by demographic factors: population growth; where the additional inhabitants will live and work; increasing longevity; and increasing numbers of people in later life.  The Office for National Statistics projects population growth f

A scheme designed to increase the number of children cycling to school in Dulwich, south-east London, is seeking more than £2m funding from Transport for London. Southwark council and Dulwich Young Cyclists (DYC) are expecting to hear if their bid has been successful by the end of March.  London Cycling Campaign’s chair Ann Kenrick says: “Dulwich is home to over 10,000 children at around 19 schools. During school drop off and pick up times the congestion is appalling, the

Hidden behind the headline grabbing figures on road traffic growth, accident casualties and public transport use in the latest DfT Transport Statistics GB, comes the reminder that Government expenditure on UK transport has declined for four consecutive years: it currently stands at £19.3bn, well down from the £23bn (at outturn, not 2012/3 prices) of the 2009/10 peak. These cuts affect both capital and current (revenue) expenditure, and they apply to the whole of the UK. Treasury fig

Pedestrian campaign group Living Streets is calling for an extra three seconds of green man time on pedestrian crossings to allow the elderly to cross in comfort. The group says research by University College London’s department of epidemiology and public health has found that many people over 65 walk much slower than the current assumed walking speed of 1.2 metres per second in the DfT guidelines for pedestrian crossings. For men the average speed was 0.9 metres per second and for women

The chairman of Parry People Movers Ltd this week predicted a secure future for the company in the aftermath of this summer’s winding-up of JPM Parry & Associates Ltd (JPA) by the High Court.  JPA was wound-up following an application by HMRC over a £70,000 VAT debt. The firm started work in rail in the 1990s, which led to the launch of the Parry People Movers, two of which are now deployed on the short Stourbridge Junction to Stourbridge Town branch line in the West Midlan

A?Labour Government would place new duties on local authorities in England to support walking and cycling.  Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle told MPs this week that Labour would bring forward legislation similar to the Active Travel (Wales) Bill that is currently passing through the National Assembly for Wales.  “We should learn from Wales and extend to England its active travel legislation, which sets out clear duties on local authorities to support cycling,” she s

The average number of trips made per person in 2012 was almost identical to 40 years ago but down 12% on what it was 15 years ago, according to the findings of the DfT’s National Travel Survey for 2012. The number of trips recorded by the sample of just over 8,000 Britons averaged 954 in 2012 compared with 956 in 1972/73. But in the 1995/97 NTS the average had been 1,086. The researchers attribute the decline in trip-making since the 1990s to less commuting and fewer trips to the shops an

Stagecoach recorded a 6.3% increase in revenues from its UK bus operations outside London last year but rising costs resulted in a lower operating margin. Total revenue for the Stagecoach Group in 2012/13 was £2.8bn (excluding intangible asset expenses and exceptional items) – up 8.3% on the £2.6bn for the previous financial year. Operating profit increased by 8.1% to £256m, earnings per share rose by 18.9% to 30.2p, and the company’s full-year dividend will rise

Swindon Borough Council Cycle Loan Scheme Swindon’s cycle loan scheme is an innovative and engaging project that allows commuters to borrow a bike for free before deciding whether to buy one outright. The scheme is run by an organisation called Recycles, a social enterprise set up as part of the Salvation Army in Swindon. Recycles provides a pool of 30 bikes of various shapes, sizes and styles, including electric and folding bikes. The enterprise also provides employment for people who

FirstGroup has announced  a £615m rights issue and scrapped its final dividend for 2012/13 in an effort to reduce debts and avoid a credit rating downgrade. The company’s chairman, Martin Gilbert, has also announced he is stepping down after 27 years. The dilution of the shareholding has prompted a sharp fall in the  company’s share price, which was trading this week at 126p compared with 224p a fortnight ago. Announcing the plans to analysts, FirstGroup chief exec

A person's underlying values are probably fairly robust to the ups and downs of personal circumstances, within reason, but what actually interests you as a problem, opportunity or research topic can be highly sensitive and volatile, reflecting the conditions of life as you find it. Which is why, with acknowledgement to my granddaughter Mabel, aged one month, I’ve been musing on the issue of the transportability of baby buggies on buses. The last time this affected me directly was when I w

Highway authorities have been urged to ensure that they take account of DfT guidance in their decision-making following the recent High Court ruling that the London Borough of Newham acted unlawfully by developing its own tactile paving guidance that contradicts the DfT’s. In a paper to the Local Government Technical Advisers Group’s national transport committee, chairman Bob Donaldson said the judge in the Newham case had stressed that “in law, context is everything”.

With the arrival of a major cash injection, the smarter travel industry finds itself facing a significant challenge. By March 2015, when this round of Local Sustainable Transport Fund (LSTF) funding ends, there will have to be real and robust evidence that modal shift has occurred on a large scale. Delivering this will mean entering a new phase of maturity, one capable of blending the tried and tested with innovation. It will be about looking behind to see how and why we have arrived where we

Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and the area’s 10 local authorities received £32.46m through the LSTF process, and has locally identified a further £21m to deliver improvements to active travel schemes, a supporting “smarter choices” travel promotion package, and enhanced community transport solutions. In support of these local developments and travel promotion activities, the package presents three prioritised technology measures designed to lock-in the ben

A multi-million pound package of improvements featuring the latest technology will be at the heart of sustainable travel in the West Midlands. Smartcard and real-time information technology form key milestones in the Smart Network, Smarter Choices project. This has been drawn up by Centro, the West Midlands Integrated Transport Authority, in close collaboration with the Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Sandwell, Walsall, Dudley and Solihull councils, as well as private rail and bus operators

For many people, one of the biggest barriers to cycling is working out how to get to places using a route that fits their needs. Some have the confidence to take direct routes along main roads, but many more need some reassurance that they won’t have to mix with fast traffic or use busy roads. Until our network of cycling infrastructure is to Dutch or Danish standards, a key part of this will be providing good quality, user-focused maps helping people plan their journey. More people are

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Evidence (NICE) have released guidance for local measures to promote walking and cycling as forms of travel or recreation. They recommend the importance of schools as hubs for supporting and fostering a culture of active travel for staff, parents and students. This is in contrast to the Atkins report on the Travelling to School Initiative (TTSI) which states “a comparison of data for schools with and without a School Travel Plan (STP) suggest

A brief re-cap of the Barclays Cycle Hire scheme in London is appropriate before thinking about how a similar scheme might work elsewhere. The cycle hire scheme was introduced in 2010 as part of a wider strategy aimed at increasing cycle mode share four-fold to 5%. Initially, it was open only to registered scheme members, but in spring 2011 it was opened up to all. A year on from its launch, the headline statistics were: 400 docking stations; 6,000 bikes; 130,000 members; over 6 million journey

Reading Borough Council has led the delivery of a successful local sustainable transport fund (LSTF) large funding package of £21m for the Reading urban area. The funding is a catalyst for delivery of much needed sustainable travel facilities, and also a means of rolling out a whole new wave of technology driven solutions. But for this to be a success, it can’t be a case of “build it and they will come”, install and hope, or just experimental projects. This investment nee

The world of car clubs currently has a relatively low profile, but there is a lot happening that makes the local press. For example, trials have recently taken place using hydrogen-powered cars for a short spell in the Aberdeen car club. The new E-Car Club using Nissan Leaf Electric Vehicles (EVs) started operating in October and has made the front page of the Oxford Mail already. New ‘car-sharing’ models like peer-to-peer operator Whipcar and one-way operator car2go, have also bee

Smarter choices are informed choices. One of the challenges being addressed by Leicestershire County Council is how residents can find out about the travel options available to them. This is especially important in places like Loughborough, where the transport infrastructure has been recently improved. “There is a perception gap between how difficult people think it is to get around without their car, and the reality,” said Ian Vears, travel choice and access team manager. In the

When I see an adult on a bicycle”, HG Wells allegedly said, “I do not despair for the future of the human race”. The notion that active travel is a “good thing” is not new. But the political and practical treatment of active travel has changed significantly in recent years, not least in London. The idea of “active travel” is imprecise. It is generally taken to mean walking, cycling and wider behaviour changes stimulated by travel demand management (TDM

The UK’s experience in travel behaviour change tools is advanced and has spanned 15 years in many areas. Transport authorities in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East have rolled out travel plan programmes using best practices from the UK. In August, the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) launched its first travel plan programme to determine whether success in travel behaviour change achieved in the UK and elsewhere can be replicated there. The programme, branded as Tr

With the outlook for the European market still gloomy at best, many UK businesses are looking abroad for new opportunities. At SKM Colin Buchanan, we are not only looking overseas for new projects, but also to what can be learnt from our international colleagues whose projects haven’t always been affected by the same levels of austerity cuts. These can provide inspiration for LSTF projects, which will enable the UK to implement significant behaviour change projects alongside capital infras

Improving the delivery of local services at a time of economic uncertainty and constrained budgets is never easy. That is something I learned as leader of Lewes District Council during the recession of the early 1990s. But it is often during times of challenge and change that we are inspired to find more creative solutions to enduring problems. Implementing a genuinely smart, sustainable and innovative travel programme should be a core priority for councils today. It is vital that we find new

Welcome to the first edition of ‘Re-booting Smarter Travel’ which is the beginning of a series of publications and events which aim to redefine the future of sustainable transport. Why ‘re-boot’? It seems clear that attitudes towards sustainable travel have improved dramatically in recent years, evidenced by the increasing popularity of cycling, young people driving less, and the trend towards lower car use. The £1bn Local Sustainable Transport Fund, therefore, co

Transport for Greater Manchester’s plan to introduce smartcard ticketing on its public transport network is by no means the only ‘hi-tech’ project that the organisation is working on at the moment but David Hytch, as information systems director (technology initiatives), concedes that: “This is probably, as far as the public is concerned, the single biggest thing that we are doing.” When asked why Manchester is only now ‘getting into’ smartcard ticketin

Smart ticketing is strongly supported by the Department for Transport, which has as one of its aims “delivering, with operators and public sector bodies, the infrastructure to enable most public transport journeys to be undertaken using smart ticketing by December 2014 “. So it is perhaps no surprise that proposals for existing and future BRT schemes include smart ticketing elements. For example, the Pennine Reach BRT project in East Lancashire plans to build on the NoWcard platform

The latest escalation of busway success is, in part, because a number of key technologies have been used to ensure that guided bus routes are successful in providing a reliable, fast and frequent service that ensures a positive customer experience. This is, of course, key to maximising the potential of BRT and is, therefore, vital in promoting modal shift and increasing BRT’s uptake as an alternative to the car, particularly in heavily congested areas. Vix has worked with many of the pion

The latest accessibility data from the DfT tells us that the average minimum travel time to the seven key services analysed (employment, primary school, secondary school, further education, GP, hospital, food store) was 14 minutes by public transport/walking, nine minutes by cycling and six minutes by car. These times were 33 seconds longer than in 2010 for public transport/waking and around 12 seconds longer than in 2010 for both cycling and by car. As in previous years, the statistics tell us

The DfT’s recent bus policy statement Green light for better buses (LTT 30 Mar) has been greeted with some praise by the bus industry. It is said to be an attempt to keep all parties happy and the best that could be expected under the current financial circumstances. I do not agree with this and view it as yet another pointless and damaging tinkering exercise with no clear goals. Has the bus industry become such a subsidy junkie that it applauds any crumbs thrown in its direction regardles

Oxfordshire County Council has pledged to work with cyclist and disability groups to address their concerns about plans to convert a busy signal-controlled road junction outside the city’s railway station into a boulevard. Frideswide Square acts as a gateway to the city centre and its northern edge is fronted by Oxford University’s Säid Business School. The council’s plans will see traffic signals and road markings removed, pavements widened, the carriageway area greatl

The DfT this week played down the likelihood of Cornwall Council being given permission to introduce a flat rate charge for concessionary travel on buses. The council is to write to transport secretary Justine Greening seeking approval to be exempted from the current mandatory system of free off-peak bus travel. “With 5.8 million concessionary journeys a year in Cornwall, a 50p flat fare would raise £2.9m per annum,” Peter Moore, Cornwall’s community transport manager

In an era of austerity, partnerships between different public sector organisations that involve pooling resources and staff to maximise impact have risen up the agenda. ‘Community budgets’ now encourage inter-agency working on tackling intractable problems. Such an approach has long been in place in Lincolnshire. The Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership has brought together a number of agencies tasked with reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured on the county&rsq

My title this month references the best-known song from the 1965 musical ‘Man of La Mancha’. My favourite version is by Matt Munro, though it’s been covered by almost everyone, including Elvis, Andy Williams, the comedian Tim Vine (on Celebrity Fame Academy!) and a Honda advert. Sung by the character Don Quixote, it’s subtitled ‘The Quest’ and is about striving for a noble, but probably unreachable, goal. I wonder if ‘Shared Space’ is one of these.

Dorset County Council has launched an investigation into the  “unprecedented” problems with school transport services provided by one of its new contractors in the first two weeks of the new school term. The council received hundreds of complaints a day from parents and teachers as children were left waiting for buses that turned up late or didn’t arrive at all. Public transport watchdog Travelwatch South West said it also received complaints of children being unable to b

The Government's decision to end the current, non-statutory arrangements whereby long-distance coach service operators in England can claim BSOG (bus service operator grant) in return for offering a 50% concessionary fare scheme to disabled customers and passengers over 60 (announced in the comprehensive spending review last October) received a somewhat belated burst of publicity in late August. The media’s interest was partly provoked by a joint press release issued by three campaigning b

Within the next ten years something like a quarter of the population will be aged 65 or over. This is a large constituent part of the population that, in an area such as Greater Manchester, primarily has to be seen as an important resource for the health and wellbeing of the whole conurbation. There are, however, real challenges associated with the provision of local transport and mobility services to older people. Responses to these challenges will help to determine how effectively the city reg

School travel planning in England has been dealt a fresh blow by the Department for Education’s decision to remove the question about how children travel to school from the annual school census. The decision has been greeted with dismay by the school travel planning community and comes on top of the recent ending of Government funding for school travel adviser posts and cuts to council spending on travel behaviour change policies. “The implications of the removal of this data set

Local authority public transport co-ordinators in England this week called for the end of concessionary free travel and warned that devolving Bus Service Operators Grant to local authorities could lead to the funding being channelled out of transport. The comments by the Association of Transport Co-ordinating Officers come in response to this week’s publication of the House of Commons transport select committee report on bus services after the spending review. The MPs call for free trav

The picture on the right may look like just another bicycle but the PXP design currently under development by Parlee Cycles in the US features one innovation that you don’t see on most bikes – thought-controlled gear shifting. Using technology originally developed by Toyota to enable severely disabled people to control electric wheelchairs, the PXP bicycle concept involves a cycle helmet that contains neuron transmitters, which enable the user to shift gears on the bike just by think

Aggregate bus company profits increased in 2009/10 for the third year running, but many operators are failing to make “appropriate” levels of profit, according to the annual survey of the industry by public transport consultancy the TAS Partnership. The Competition Commission’s ongoing inquiry into Britain’s local bus market outside London has put the industry’s profitability under increased scrutiny in recent months. The Commission’s provisional findings in

Cuts to council budgets, reductions in concessionary fares reimbursement and lower Bus Service Operators Grant payments: it’s a toxic mix that is putting pressure on passenger transport services across England – particularly in parts of the shires where commercial operations are often marginal or non-existent. But in one rural part of the country the council is looking forward to delivering higher quality passenger transport to its citizens and at lower cost to the taxpayer. Dorset

The DfT this week welcomed the news that bus operators have only lodged 29 appeals against this year’s local authority concessionary fare reimbursement schemes in England. The number has surprised the Department and observers who had expected that operators would be keen to lodge appeals as a way of testing the DfT’s new reimbursement guidance that cuts operator payments. A DfT spokeswoman told LTT that 27 appeals were being made against the mandatory schemes and two against discr

Do we need specialised accessible transport services?  (By ‘accessible transport’, I mean transport that a wheelchair user or other mobility impaired user can access). The question is not as daft as it sounds, especially as some local authorities pay very large sums annually for inefficient or incomplete specialised accessible transport systems.  Take a not untypical scenario. A large local authority may operate or support a considerable, centralised, grant-aided, but rat

Transport minister Norman Baker this week criticised local authorities that make deep cuts to their tendered bus service budgets. But he added that he was powerless to stop them making such “mistakes”. Baker told the House of Commons transport committee inquiry into local bus services: “One of my major concerns is how one or two local authorities appear to have decided to cut drastically their bus services without, I believe, very much consideration for the consequences.&rdquo

In a time when UK road deaths are at record lows, with significant reductions in public sector spending and challenging trading conditions for the private sector, road safety may be at risk of becoming a victim of its own successes. The 1967 White Paper Road Safety – a Fresh Approach laid the foundations (by leading to the statutory duties in the Road Traffic Acts of 1974 and 1988) for the organisational structures we have today but, before that, road safety provision was founded on a mish

A six-month trial to test a solution to reduce vehicle speeds in urban areas and improve road safety has, according to Siemens, “produced very encouraging results”. Three new SafeZone average speed safety cameras, developed by Siemens, were installed outside Springdale First School in Poole last September to improve road safety for school children and local residents. The three cameras were installed along Springdale Road with each single camera monitoring two lanes of traffic. The S

Local Authorities are sometimes criticised for failing to understand the needs of business but that charge would be hard to level at Kent under Paul Carter’s leadership. Carter, the council’s Conservative leader since October 2005, has spent considerably longer – 33 years – in the construction industry and now runs a number of property, construction and retail businesses in central London. Normally when LTT interviews a councillor it is the cabinet member with  tra

Let's get this straight at the outset: seeking to make our streets, spaces and other transport systems fully and easily accessible for all members of the public is truly righteous (what my dictionary defines as “in accordance with virtue or morality”). The problem we have, but struggle to accept, is not that the objective is inappropriate or unnecessary, but that it simply isn’t possible. There: I’ve said it. But then, let’s face it, you’ve thought it; and I

Dai Powell, chief executive of the HCT Group, is not like most other people working in the public transport sector right now. For one thing, he is optimistic that mobility can be maintained or even improved over the coming years, despite the decline in public spending. “If local authorities are prepared to do things differently, we can rise to this challenge of reduced budgets without reducing people’s travel options,” he tells LTT. “If councils are prepared to pool budg

Some Local authorities are  pursuing shared space street designs because of “hearsay, unwarranted assumptions and a vague faith in human nature”, according to new report. The charge is made by the  Thomas Pocklington Trust, a charity for people with sight loss, and is based on the findings of research commissioned from Professor Rob Imrie and research fellow Marion Kumar of King’s College London’s department of geography. The report calls for more guidance on

When Philip Hammond settled into  the transport hotseat at Great Minster House last May, one of the first welcome letters he received was from Stephen Joseph, the chief executive officer of the Campaign for Better Transport. In it, Joseph said the CBT was the UK’s leading transport non-governmental organisation and had worked closely with the Conservative’s shadow transport secretary, Theresa Villiers, to “help develop Conservative party policy”. “We look forwa

The First DfT-sponsored research project to investigate the actual evidence behind the theory of the ‘shared space’ urban design concept is close to delivering its results, MVA Consultancy’s Stuart Reid told LTT’s Shared Spaces conference last week. And the preliminary findings are, Reid added, that a well designed shared space scheme can significantly alter the ways in which the various types of road/street users interact with each other. The objectives of the research

Bus passengers in England face service cuts and inflation-busting fare rises as operators and local authorities grapple with a  major reduction in public funding to the industry.  The threat to networks are highlighted in submissions to the House of Commons transport committee’s inquiry into the bus industry, which began this week. Devon County Council says council budget cuts coincide with a “perfect storm” of the DfT’s new reimbursement guidance that will

The Government is ending the need for highway authorities in England to demonstrate their progress in reducing congestion, promoting modal shift and improving accessibility. Communities secretary Eric Pickles said the volume of information demanded by Whitehall would be “radically reduced” as he unveiled a new list of all the data that Government departments would require. Seven transport indicators and other datasets have been scrapped so far, and the Government is continuing to r

The DfT has changed its concessionary fares reimbursement guidance in response to bus operator fears that the draft guidance would undermine the economics of many rural services. But one analyst this week warned that the new guidance would still have a damaging effect on service levels and fares in many parts of the country. Another suggested that one of the changes broke the legal requirement that individual operators should be left ‘no worse and no better off’ by participating in&

The modelling world would seem to be suffering from something of a crisis of confidence at present. No longer is there a long string of articles in this supplement boasting of the immense potential for modelling to add value to the transport planning process (although there are still some in this vein). What the modelling community is currently talking about, apparently, is how we recognise the limits to modelling and ensure that, when models are used, it is just as important that we realise wha

Anyone who’s ever been involved at the early stages of developing a transport model will understand the slight note of trepidation in the voice; that twitch in the eye accompanying the announcement that “of course we’ll have to undertake comprehensive origin-destination data collection”.  O-D surveys are synonymous with roadside interview surveys (RSIs), possibly the most difficult part of any data collection programme.  They’re very expensive, they requir

As part of the Government’s bonfire of the quangos announced in October, the Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) is to be abolished. It is therefore timely to look back at the work of this body that has made a real difference to public transport over its 23-year existence. DPTAC’s principal statutory remit was to advise the secretary of state for transport, who had to “secure that at all times at least half of the committee consists of persons who are

England's Concessionary fares scheme for the elderly and disabled was facing renewed turmoil this week as travel concession authorities (TCAs) found themselves with no DfT guidance to inform next year’s schemes just four working days before their schemes must be published. The Department this week issued a single page bulletin to TCAs promising that the guidance on operator reimbursement would be published “as soon as possible before December 1st”. The 1 December is the statut

The Panel session that brought the conference to a close turned into a fascinating ding-dong between supporters of the free fares policy and those who believe it should be scrapped. Conference chair Andrew Last of consultant Minnerva began the session by  presenting smartcard data from Lancashire revealing the number of bus trips made by passholders over a five-week period. The data showed that 56% of passholders had made no use whatsoever of their passes during this period. Meanwhile, 8%

Changes to concessionary fares reimbursement in England from April next year could have a devastating impact on the economics of bus services, particularly in rural areas, the conference heard. “I think frankly this is going to be a disaster,” said Peter Shipp, chairman of operator the EYMS?Group. “It worries me that we’re going far too quickly into what is going to be a very significant change to public transport in England, shire counties particularly, if this goes ahe

It's a busy day for Philip Hammond in the House of Commons. The Finance Bill is having its third reading and the debate may not finish before midnight. But he’s managed to free up a bit of time to talk to LTT about the DfT’s new spending settlement and hopefully much more besides. “Sit down anywhere you like,” he says, welcoming me into his snug office above the debating chamber. Let’s start with an easy question first: how long do we have to chat, 20-25 minutes?

The DfT is being urged to make major changes to its concessionary fares reimbursement guidance – or risk seeing bus services axed across much of England. Consultation closed this week on the guidance for bus operator reimbursement from next April. The Confederation of Passenger Transport’s response says the guidance is “not fit for purpose” and possibly unlawful. Delegates at last week’s concessionary fares conference organised by LTT heard operators and local a

Visually impaired pedestrians would find it easier to navigate round Britain’s streets if there was greater simplicity and consistency in the application of tactile paving, according to a new report. The report, by the Government’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and the Royal College of Art’s Helen Hamlyn Centre, also calls on local authorities to assist the visually impaired by placing tactile navigational information on street poles. Ross Atkin

The DfT has been lobbying for local authorities to be given the right to block plans for ‘Free Schools’ on traffic grounds.  The DfT’s concern about the  Department for Education’s flagship school plans was revealed by Fraser Nelson, editor of the right-leaning Spectator magazine. “Transport bureaucrats are troubled by the idea of hundreds of schools opening, leading to a new convoy of school runs. So they are threatening to give local authorities the ri

A media storm has begun to rage in Scotland concerning whether or not double-decker buses are suitable to transport pupils to and from schools. The debate began after a bus carrying 34 schoolchildren overturned and ended up in a field near the town of Laurencekirk in Aberdeenshire. There were no casualties but six children were taken to hospital and 13 others received some medical treatment. “Heavy rain and wind were believed to have been ‘a factor’ in the crash,” The

The House of Commons’ transport committee inquiry into transport and the economy has put the spotlight once again on the link between transport investment and economic growth. While its starting point is the acknowledgement that “a good transport system is a pre-condition of (...) the UK’s economic recovery” the committee is now tasked with revisiting the findings of Sir Rod Eddington’s 2006 report and to answer two key questions: What types of transport in

Changes to concessionary travel reimbursement could lead to bus services being cut and fare rises, the DfT has admitted. The Department has launched an eight-week consultation exercise on changing reimbursement arrangements for concessionary travel in England (outside London). Its best estimate is that the changes will reduce the amount of reimbursement paid to operators by between £68m and £132m a year. About £1bn a year of public money is currently spent on concessionary

There has been a lot of debate recently about what is the appropriate age that children should be able to go to school without being accompanied by a responsible adult. To help inform this debate we undertook a short internet based survey that was publicised through our twitter account. The aim of the survey was to: identify the age that people who are adults now went to school without an adult; whether this age has changed over time; whether there is any correlation between this age and the

Surrey County Council is calling on the Government to scrap the Traffic Commissioners and pass responsibility for bus  and goods vehicle licensing to local authorities. The council’s Conservative leader Andrew Povey has told ministers that traffic commissioners are “unnecessary quangos that add an additional layer of bureaucracy”. Povey also wants the Government to relax the rules on concessionary fares. “Although funding provided for concessionary fares is well-me

There may not have been any fireworks during Philip Hammond’s first appearance   before the House of Commons transport committee last week but that did not make the event any less interesting. The transport secretary was self-assured throughout his two-hour inquisition, ably answering the MPs’ questions without a stutter or the need to seek help from his team of accompanying officials. The questioning ranged far and wide, across rail (see page 8), roads, road safety, buses,

Options to cut the £1bn cost of free bus travel for the over 60s and disabled in England have been outlined by one of the country’s leading concessionary fares experts. Andrew Last of consultant Minnerva told the Transport Practitioners Meeting in York this week that there were pros and cons with most possible changes to the scheme. But he added: “The most important step is to recognise that a debate is needed, and that the current position is likely to be increasingly unaffor

Programmes to cut home-to-school car trips in England were under threat this week as local authorities cut school travel adviser posts in response to the Government’s in-year spending cuts. The picture varies across authorities but LTT understands that Devon, the Isle of Wight, West Berkshire, Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Norfolk are among councils where school travel plan staff have been given formal notification that their jobs are at risk or that their jobs will

On both sides of the Atlantic, schools are breaking up for the summer holiday – but both sides of the pond, seat belts and school transport safety are expected again to be challenging topics for local authorities later this year. In the USA the University of Alabama is finalising its study into seat belts on school buses.  Their report, commissioned following an accident that resulted in four fatalities in 2006, will influence whether seat belts will be required on yellow buses there

The number of concessionary  trips made on buses in Scotland  has fallen for the second successive year but the cost of the scheme has continued to rise.  Figures released by the Scottish Government show that 7.5 million fewer concessionary trips were made in 2009/10 than 2007/08. Nevertheless, the cost of operator reimbursement rose by £24m from 2007/08 to 2009/10. The decline in trips comes despite a steady rise in the number of national entitlement cards in circulation

These are interesting times for Phillip Darnton, chairman of Cycling England, the independent body that has been charged by the Government to get more people cycling, more safely, more often. Since its inception in 2005 the organisation has been funded in three-year cycles and so Darnton is currently waiting to see how much money Cycling England is going to be given for the 2011-2014 period. The new Government is, of course, currently looking to make significant cuts in public expenditure, which

Norman Baker didn’t come into politics to announce bad news. As the Liberal Democrat’s transport spokesman in the run-up to the General Election he made eyecatching pledges to re-open railway lines, cut train fares and build a high-speed railway. But this has all had to be put on the backburner as the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition puts reducing the country’s budget deficit above everything else. Sitting in his office at the DfT’s Marsham Street HQ, Baker says