Autonomous public transport has the potential to transform our cities.

Suburbs that are not currently served by public transport could be cost-effectively connected for the first time, while conventional bus routes could be expanded.

One city that is taking the lead in experimenting with autonomous public transport is Paris, under the leadership of James Dick at RATP.

In today’s episode, he tells me just how close he believes they are to delivering autonomous buses out on the road, driverless and at scale.

It’s a great conversation with a transport leader passionate about the future and making sure that our sector meets it head-on and with positivity.

Enjoy!

Gian-Mattia Schucan founded Fairtiq to make travelling by public transport effortless: no tickets, no gates, no stress. We talk about the journey from idea to reality, what operators really want from innovators and how to make change happen in public transport.

I’m sad to say that this is the last episode of Season 4 but, don’t worry, I’ll be back with Season 5 in September.

“It's fine when you're swinging big to have a few misses in a controlled environment” - 𝗝𝗼𝗻𝗻𝘆 𝗠𝗼𝗼𝗱, 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲 making it very clear that it’s fine for public sector organisations to try things and fail.

In today’s episode, I talk to Jonny about what value for money really means, why BCR is often misused and how the NAO supports innovation in the public sector.

The conversation about BCRs is also fascinating: highlighting that value-for-money rules don’t require complex decisions to be boiled down to a single number.

Do take a listen to this one!

What happens when a rail consultant unexpectedly becomes an MP?

In this episode, I talk to Olly Glover MP about the chaos of election night, the shock of landing in Parliament and what the job of an MP really involves.

We explore why innovation is hard in legacy sectors like rail, and how the UK’s political system both helps and hinders progress.

Olly shares his frustrations with UK transport policy, his thoughts on rolling electrification and why he can’t stand Prime Minister’s Questions.

In this episode, I’m joined by Lars Strömgren, Vice Mayor for Transport and Urban Environment in Stockholm, and one of the people most responsible for Sweden’s cycling boom.

We explore how Stockholm went from a city with less than 1% cycling modal share in the 1980s to one of the most bike-friendly places in Europe. Lars reflects on how his childhood on his grandmother’s bike shaped his passion for urban planning, and why he sees infrastructure, narrative and community engagement as the holy trinity of sustainable mobility.

We talk about the normalisation of cycling (and how it shifted from working-class mode to middle-class badge of honour), the fight to introduce zero emission zones and how livable streets can go from controversial to loved.

Lars also shares why it’s hard to take a photo of clean air, but easy to show people enjoying a tree-lined street!

We also discuss some unexpected angles: how my local high street in Walthamstow inspired parts of Stockholm, what it means to use storytelling as a tool in planning and why building cities out of wood might be the next frontier in sustainability.

My guest this week is Anjali Devadasan, founder of Treeva, a startup generating energy from passing vehicles and trains. Her turbines harness airflow to power local infrastructure like lighting and EV chargers.

We talked about the technology, the challenges of scaling, and her personal drive to tackle climate change, inspired by her family’s personal experience of climate-change induced flash floods.

Anjali also shared great advice for founders around protecting time for strategy, running real world experiments and building around purpose.

A truly inspirational conversation with someone who’s achieved incredible things very early in her career.

In Oslo, Christian Willoch and his team at Ruter are doing something most cities haven’t even begun to talk about – using autonomous vehicles to strengthen public transport, not compete with it.

In this episode, I visit the pilot project they’ve got going, with real members of the public travelling on Ruter-branded autonomous vehicles in exactly the kind of outer suburb in which this technology will be transformative.

We talk about why Oslo's approach isn’t about robotaxis, but about public service and affordable mobility for all. Christian shares the lessons they’ve learned, the challenges ahead and why cities need to start planning now before they’re caught off guard.

Afterwards, I take a ride in one of their autonomous vehicles. You can listen into my live audio commentary of the experience…

Stephen Bush, Associate Editor at the Financial Times, is one of the few political journalists who truly gets transport policy.

In this episode, we talk about why transport matters far more to economic productivity than politicians realise, why ambition in major infrastructure projects has declined since the financial crisis and why simply nationalising services won't fix public transport.

Stephen also shares insights on why London’s success is the exception not the rule (and how its future success is not guaranteed) and we discuss whether a mayor of a major British city (Greater Manchester, for example) could become Prime Minister.

Elke Van den Brandt has transformed Brussels' streets – and taken a political battering for doing so.

As the city’s mobility minister, she’s championed slower speeds, safer roads and public spaces that feel more like “living rooms than corridors”.

We talk about her 30km/h city-wide limit, the backlash it sparked, the silent majority that supports it and the power of empathy, small projects and showing up in person.

It was a superb insight into how political bravery, behavioural science and empathy (backed up by strong leadership) can work together to reshape cities for the better.

Here’s a taster of what’s coming up in Season 4.

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