The trains are being painted but it’s not yet clear what the brand is meant to mean.

Brand strategy is not an afterthought - it’s a fundamental driver of customer experience. It should be one of the first and most important decisions.

And - this is crucial - brand strategy is not the same as org structure.

We’re about to have a new Prime Minister. That now seems highly likely.

And the reason couldn’t be clearer: there’s a consensus, across the board, that Keir Starmer has moved too slowly on too many things.

So what needs to change under his successor?

Well, a big part of it is the way Government works.

Here’s a Baker’s dozen of ideas…

The DfT funded Mini Switzerland without a published funding pot or transparent criteria.

Good!

Being able to react to an idea with pace and agility is exactly what we need from Government in an era when the public doubt the state’s ability to deliver.

Too much procedural fairness can stifle outcomes - without actually being fairer.

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.

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.

It’s all very well having strategies for each mode. But what ties them all together?

Lane Rental could make a big difference to roadworks. But not as currently designed.

The bus strategy risks underwhelming. But it can be saved with time and money.

The decarbonisation plan is, sadly, fatally flawed

Detailed wording matters. PSVAR has failed both operators and disabled users

Open data is a great Government investment. But shame it's segregated by mode and it's now got to deliver for small developers

We have strategies for buses, bikes and trains. But what about where most journeys happen; roads?

BSIP guidance is sweeping and ambitious. But it's also hyper-centralised and silent on the funding

The Government's cycling strategy is ambitious, visionary, detailed, intelligent… and largely unfunded

Road improvements in Bristol are the test of whether the Government’s strategies are anything more than words

Does predict and provide inevitably result in economic concentration?

Now we finally know what the Williams Shapps Plan says, I get together with Sir MIchael Holden to discuss it

Williams-Shapps has a lot going for it, but neither political nor budgetary success are guaranteed

Have you ever used a hedge trimmer to make jam? No? So don’t put Network Rail in charge of train fares.

The "Guiding Mind" is meant to ensure that train companies focus on the customer. But will the "Guiding Mind" itself be focused on the customer?