With contributions from many people and casting a totally refreshing view on people’s deep-seated desire to travel, is a new book – Why Travel? – edited by Dr Matthew Niblett and Kris Beuret OBE, of the Independent Transport Commission.

Leon Daniels OBE chats to them about editing the book, which has contributions from many people, not just in travel businesses, but beyond. 

In essence, it’s an anthology of travel by a range of people, that also takes in the social aspects to understand our need to move and how it shapes our lives.

Kris tells Leon that she was inspired to produce the book after being “fed up” with transport modelling “that assumes that travel is all about time saved.”

The range of contributors shed a different viewpoint from the popularly-presented one that travel is unpleasant and something to be avoided.

They mull over why commuting is beneficial, why an hour is the ideal commute and what we’ve done to replace it

They discuss how much travel we need for our wellbeing, our complicated needs to travel and whether technology is the enemy.

Considering transport policy, there’s a discussion about whether we should move away from thinking about restricting travel to better travel, that then moves onto why ‘slower travel’ can be better travel and the benefit of cheap travel. 

They conclude by examining what young people will do to change travel behaviours and how that fits with their generational view of the need to be ‘green’.

https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/why-travel

Kris Beuret OBE is the Director of Social Research Associates (SRA). She is a sociologist, previously an academic, and a member of the Independent Transport Commission and Highways England’s Research and Innovation Advisory Board. Kris has advised the House of Commons Transport Committee, TfL, the DfT and overseas governments on disability and diversity issues.

Dr Matthew Niblett is Director of the Independent Transport Commission (ITC) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He oversees the ITC's research portfolio and has presented findings from this research to Ministers and Parliamentary Select Committee enquiries. Matthew holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford and was a Senior Research Associate at Oxford's Transport Studies Unit.

It’s a return visit by Paul Sainthouse, Past President of CILT and MD Dawsonrentals Bus & Coach, a year after he appeared in the launch edition of Lunch with Leon.

Chatting with Leon Daniels OBE over lunch, they discuss the state of the market, why it’s cheaper not to operate coaches in the winter, what Paul learned when he visited ITT Hub 2021, and an important Chinese saying about the future…

Leon Daniels OBE has worked alongside many people in his transport career, and when he was MD Surface Transport at TfL one of his ‘right-hand’ people was Chief Operating Officer: Garrett Emmerson.

At the end of May 2017 Garrett became CEO of the London Ambulance Service (LAS) after it was put into ‘special measures’ by the Care Quality Commission (not due to the quality of care but its organisation) with a brief to turn it around.

Just four days later LAS responded to the London Bridge terrorist attacks (initially reported as a traffic accident), then 11 days later came the Grenfell Tower fire.

Garrett talks with Leon about what happened during his first fortnight in post, and then how as the Covid pandemic unfolded in early 2019 LAS came under massive pressure.

He drew on his experience of organisation of the 2012 London Olympics, “but we had seven years to plan that and knew what was due to happen every day,” he tells Leon. “In the pandemic we had about seven days to respond to a single crisis as it unfolded.”

He recalls the day when he was told that he might lose 25% of staff due to infection, as 999 ambulance call volumes jumped from 5,500 on a ‘busy day’ to 8,500 calls on ‘many days’ and 111 call volumes tripled.

“It’s amazing what you can do when you put the entire resources into a project – I knew what you could do if you devoted the whole organisation to one single task,” he says.

He explains how a new call centre was built over a weekend, as LAS needed more call handlers. 

“We didn’t have the capacity to answer 999 ambulance calls. Normally it takes five weeks to train a call handler, then another four weeks of mentoring support. We didn’t have that sort of time. 

“From conception – how it might work – to implementation, we built a brand-new call centre over a weekend specifically for handling Covid calls. On the Monday morning, it opened with new staff – second year paramedic students – who had sufficient clinical knowledge to deal with Covid calls.”

Crisis was averted due to the “fantastic effect of lockdown” on the spread of Covid, buying more time.

Garrett also recalls how lateral thinking saw a call to The AA, who released all 177 of its roadside staff in London so that LAS could boost its 50 vehicle technicians to 230 and run LAS workshops 24/7 to keep ambulances on the road.

They also helped to commission new ambulances – previously done at two a week – to add 110 new and secondhand vehicles in just three weeks, by taking over part of West Ham Bus Garage.

Having just returned from ITT Hub 2021 – where it was “so great to get back out there and meet real people and talk about the major issues of the day,” Leon Daniels OBE catches up with Claire Haigh, from the Greener Transport Council. 

A champion for greener journeys for a long time, they chat about the ‘terrible price’ that the EV revolution could lead to and the types of change we really need.

Are the government incentives too strong, they wonder, and is it not balanced to stop people to unnecessarily use their cars, and the £40bn tax ‘black hole’ stop being a theoretical threat to public finances.

“It focusses the mind in a way that nothing else could – but it presents a window of opportunity to change,” reckons Claire.

It’s the “best opportunity” to have a proper conversation with the public about taxation and why low-income families shouldn’t subside car users.

Gareth Rogers, CEO of Farnborough International – home of the famous biennial international air show – talks about events, exhibiting and why ITT Hub is such a good fit with the Hampshire-based business.

“Humans like to meet, so I sense we will supplement our face-to-face meetings with Zoom and Teams; I don’t see people not travelling,” he says about the post-Covid recovery of business.

People are ‘bursting to get out’ comments Leon, and Gareth strongly agrees. 

We also learn why the air show and ITT Hub resonate with each other, which led to Farnborough buying ITT Hub, and the next steps.

“I have a firm belief that we will make a formidable force, creating an event that industry wants to come to – because it’s relevant,” adds Gareth.

The long-awaited Williams-Shapps rail review has been published by the Transport Secretary. While its headlines are a new public body – Great British Railways – providing single national leadership, better integration, simpler fares and smarter ticketing, there’s much detail. To get to grips with the detail, Leon Daniels OBE talks through the plan with leading rail commentator Nigel Harris, editor of RAIL magazine.

A prolific writer of articles and visible on social media, Philip Gerhardt is this week’s dining companion on ‘Lunch with Leon’.

Currently General Manager - Route Performance at Arriva London, Philip is ‘destined for great things’ says Leon Daniels, who charts Philip’s rise through the industry since joining as a trainee 12 years ago.

In a conversation that the “younger generation would do well to hear,” reckons Leon, they chat about the transformation of the transport industry and new technologies – a real passion for Philip.

He explains why the newly-announced National Bus Strategy “opens so many doors” as he talks with passion about transport and its future.

“We have a responsibility to take people in the industry on the journey with us” says Philip as he explains how data “can really change how we look at the world” and deliver even better performance.

Whether demand-responsive travel (DRT) will ever become mainstream is mulled over, while Philip reveals how he spent his spare time in lockdown trying to break travel apps.

“We’re on the cusp of greatness in transport,” he adds as the conversation moves onto the possibilities of dynamic scheduling using real-time data. Will this, they ponder, lead to the possibility of live automated bus rescheduling on hi-frequency services?

Before wrapping up, they offer advice for young people who are thinking of joining the transport industry. What would Philip say to someone who is weighing up, for example, whether to go into retail, computer games, banking or something else? 

Describing his experiences, Philip concludes by talking about how to make transport attractive to young people as a career choice.

“Make it as clean and simple as possible.” That’s the guiding principles that Prof John Miles Director of Research in Transitional Energy Strategies at the University of Cambridge, reckons we should focus on for transport.

He’s no ‘boffin’ either, but also gets his hands dirty in the real world working with global consultants, Arup, and has first-hand knowledge of many types of transport schemes.

He tells Leon Daniels what’s wrong with Milton Keynes, and talks about the opportunity-charging bus project in the city.

Swiftly scything through all the jargon, he cuts to the chase to set out the pros and cons of all the different energy types used to power vehicles; which ones have the edge and why.

In an informed and objective analysis, he looks at what is possible. Throwing down a challenge to elected mayors looking to solve congestion, he sets out why it’s not an impossible solution.

“It’s about kicking down doors and taking people to see things,” says Andrew Braddock, about how to change the views and perceptions of those in charge, over lunch with Leon Daniels OBE.

Andrew – a public transport pioneer, who had a long and distinguished career with the National Bus Company and then Transport for London - chats with Leon about what we could do to change transport for the better.

He knows all about making change happen as when working in London he was the first pathfinder into the world of accessible buses, something that’s now universal and taken for granted. 

Under his watch, the UK’s first buses accessible for people with disabilities were introduced and he knows how hard it can be to change established views.

They talk about the possible ways out of the current pandemic for public transport, and Andrew argues why the general media’s predictions of the amount of working-from-home (WFH) in the future are exaggerated.

Andrew and Leon mull over how to replace the tax revenue from fuel duty, as the UK moves to an electric car future – and that opens up a bigger conversation about the ‘honesty’ that voters need to have about tax.

And, in a wide-ranging conversation they also cover topics as diverse as asparagus, cherries and trolleybuses…

Anna Whitty MBE is the Chief Executive of Ealing Community Transport (ECT), which provides safe, accessible and affordable community transport to people unable to use mainstream transport due to mobility or other difficulties, or because ordinary public transport is unavailable in their area.

Formed in 1979, it now offers its services across not just its West London namesake borough, but also in Cheshire, and Dorset.

Anna tells Leon how community transport serves people who ‘fall between the gaps’ of mainstream provision and are the ‘hidden heroes’. 

The independent charity provides a door-to-door service for those who can’t use public transport. Anna explains why door-to-door – rather than ‘kerb-to-kerb’ – is so important.

They chat about ECT’s role in providing accessible transport during the 2012 London Olympics, and how it demonstrated to the world what a good accessible transport network looks like.

They move on to chat about how improvements in customer service and operations have been made, including MiDAS (Minibus Driver Awareness Scheme) and the high standards ECT sets with regards to recruitment and training of drivers. 

Anna closes by explaining how her staff pulled together to help community in need during the first Covid lockdown.