Lots of people have asked me to share my thoughts on Better Connected, the Government’s new Integrated National Transport Strategy.

So here they are…

The summary: great that it exists at all, good as a first step but there’s much more needed to create a strategy that will actually integrate transport.

If you didn’t fancy spending your Friday in a windowless conference room in Canary Wharf, here are my notes from the UK Rail Summit.

Spoiler alert: it was encouraging.

Mini Switzerland succeeded because it was created by a multi-disciplinary team with leadership, empowerment and purpose. We can do this more often!

𝘈 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘕𝘦𝘵𝘧𝘭𝘪𝘹 𝘋𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘢 𝘗𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩: 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙊𝙪𝙩𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝘿𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨.

Holly is a hard-nailed transport policy officer.

She’s lived through tough times. With her sidekick Glen, she’s out to discover which interventions result in which outcomes.

Over the years, dozens of innocent interventions have been convicted of crimes they did not commit. That modal filter: convicted by model of increasing traffic on the main road. That tramway extension: convicted by model of offering a low BCR and banged up for life.

Can Holly prevent more innocent transport schemes being convicted for crimes they did not commit?

We argue about rural transport integration but none of us really know what the effects will be, as we tend to prefer modelling to experimentation.

My Mini Switzerland project is about trying to find out on the ground what actually happens.

Swiss transport integration is incredible but is it affordable? In this blog post, I argue that it’s more affordable than most people think - because of the powers of network effects

HR teams have a golden opportunity to help organisations develop the cultures needed for the modern world.

It means unlearning a lot of the current norms - and developing new ones.

They need to become the champions of empowerment, flexibility and lifelong career development.

HR has a bad reputation, often with justification.

How did we end up where we are?

What does a good people culture look like?

And is it possible in transport?

Spoiler: the answer to the last question is ‘yes’.

The National Planning Policy Framework requires transport planners to use a “vision-led” approach.

This requires big changes in culture and ways of working.

Here’s what needs to happen.

We plan transport by starting with a project, then writing a timetable and finally (if at all) considering the place being served.

To get better outcomes, we need to reverse it.

20th century transport planning left us with a worse public transport network than we started with.

That’s true in many countries, but it’s now time to change how we plan.

We all wish transport fares were lower. Obviously - many of us pay them. But that doesn’t mean they should actually be lower. In today’s post, I argue that - overall - lower fares will simply result in lower investment and a worse service. Which is bad for the people we’re trying to help.

For my first blog post of 2026, I’m going to lift the veil on everything I spent 2025 doing - when I wasn’t blogging or podcasting.

A lot has happened in 2025!

Here’s my review of the year as experienced through my blog and podcast.

"Advisers advise and ministers decide!" It's said constantly. And it's just plain wrong.

Today's blog post is about how the culture of the civil service drifted so far from other organisations, and why the commonly-held belief that it inherently needs to be different is just wrong.

It explains how modern central Government culture is all based on a decades-old misunderstanding of a court case about a wartime food factory in Liverpool.

There are too many tourists. It’s destroying both places and the planet. It’s time for a Frequent Flyer Levy.

My review of the 2025 Budget Statement.

In summary… there’s not much there, and a lot of missed potential (especially fiscal devolution to cities) BUT…

… the EV per mile charge could just be the trojan horse to something genuinely exciting.

Free public transport must be a great idea, right?

It’ll get people out of their cars and helps low income families with the cost of living.

I hate to be a party pooper, but it’s a thoroughly bad idea.

Here’s why.

Integrated transport is for customers, but do you need an integrated transport authority to deliver integrated transport?

Today’s blog post is about what integrated transport means at an organisational level.

We all know that “integrated” transport is important, but what exactly is it?

How do we define good integration and how do we know when we’ve got it?