Lunch with Leon

Anthony Smith CEO Transport focus – the government-supported independent rail, bus and roads watchdog – chats with Leon Daniels OBE about the problem in the public’s understanding of what green transport actually is.

Anthony talks about the ‘say-do’ problem: what we say is so different to what we do and how this is especially true when it comes to the environment, why attitudinal research is a ‘waste of time’ and why people lie in surveys.

And, he addresses the ‘silos’ of car Vs bus, and reckons we have passed ‘peak public transport’.

Now the government effectively has control of rail and bus, Anthony Smith sets out how the new rail concessions that are replacing franchises could finally bring genuinely integrated transport.

Do you understand the message you’re giving to your customers? It seems that many companies don’t, reckons renowned brand and design guru Ray Stenning. “It’s not just what you say, but how you say it.” In conversation with Leon Daniels they talk about how public transport’s solution to any problem is to “post a notice.”

The “art of communication is a two-way process” says Ray, and explains how to turn hard messages into welcoming ones.

“I sometimes refer to our profession as being magicians and people distrust magicians; they don’t like the dark arts,” he explains as he talks about the difficulty of culture change within transport companies, before they move on to talk about why the ‘joy of journeys’ is so important.

https://twitter.com/creatingdesire

Are we the last generation?

In a face-to-face lunch at Brooklands Museum, Leon Daniels OBE talks with Andy Graham from White Willow Consulting and the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund and learns how he’s created the Britain’s first ‘connected’ Model T Ford – thought to be Europe’s oldest ‘connected’ vehicle.

They move on to talk about what sustainability and what it really means for transport.

Studying the data

Chris Cheek has spent a large part of his life providing a great service for the bus industry, by analysing companies’ financial performance, and publishing the results.

Now, the new second edition of  his landmark work Understanding Buses, brings the picture up to date with a clear, non-technical, jargon-free explanation of how the bus industry works.

With a few notable exceptions, he concludes, the industry doesn’t make enough money to cover its costs, investment and obligations.

“Unprecedented uncertainty, “is how he describes the current situation, with no prospect of enough government funding to achieve the aspirations of its newly-published National Bus Strategy.

Despite the post-Covid car-led recovery, it’s not all bad and Chris explains why Europe envies the British bus industry and whether autonomous bus is the answer.

They also talk about the “hidden revolution” that has changed the industry in a positive way. And, how Leon Daniels is easily separated from £2.75…

passtrans.co.uk

What is the importance for humanity for its ability to travel?

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

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.

Matthew Niblett

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…

Pulling together for a common cause

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.

It’s great to be back!

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.

The world loves to meet…

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.