My guest this week is also a former colleague. Jo Seabright and I first met at Wrexham & Shropshire and Chiltern Railways and both took the same lessons on what makes a culture of innovation in a cautious industry.
Since then, we’ve gone in different directions. I’m now a passionate advocate for public transport and work with Combined Authorities and transport operators.
Jo Seabright, meanwhile, is Director of Customer Experience, Marketing and Communications for the M6 Toll.
We ran into each other at Interchange in Manchester last year, and I asked her why nobody has built a second toll motorway in twenty years, what a 50-year concession owned by pension funds does for long-term thinking, how she views induced demand and whether the M6 toll is a model for the road pricing I’d like to see nationally.
I also challenge her on her sustainability aspirations: can a road ever be sustainable?
Interchats are a series of short conversations recorded on the conference floor at Interchange 26 in Manchester.
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