Subscribe Welcome Transport Leaders! Welcome to this week's edition of my newsletter, your 5-minute guide to key strategic transport topics around the world. The biggest news in transport this week was probably the closure of London’s Heathrow Airport for a day due to a power failure. Increasing the resilience of transport services and infrastructure is high on many transport department agendas. I am sure airports worldwide are wondering whether they have vulnerabilities similar to...
7 days ago • 7 min read
March 20th, 2025 Subscribe The Hidden Housing Blocker: How Transport Policies Limit Supply Key Takeaways Transport policies constrain housing supply in multiple ways: Parking Minimums Parking Maximums The wrong approach to Transport Impact Assessments Failing to integrate transport and land use planning. Tying up land unnecessarily. Ironically, these policies also make transport systems worse by encouraging urban sprawl, increasing car dependency and worsening congestion. These...
10 days ago • 6 min read
Subscribe Welcome Transport Leaders! Welcome to this week's edition of my newsletter, your 5-minute guide to key strategic transport topics around the world. This week, we discuss why we are still building car-centric suburbs, a model for the future of transport departments, and innovations in first—and last-mile transport. However, we begin by looking at Norway's National Transport Plan. In Today's Transport Leader: Beyond EVs: The Priorities of Norway’s Transport Plan Car-Free Cities vs....
14 days ago • 6 min read
March 13th, 2025 Subscribe Surviving the Transport Subsidy Armageddon Key Takeaways The war in Ukraine is leading many countries to increase their defence budgets. Governments will look for savings elsewhere to fund this extra spending, and transport subsidies will be a prime target. To move to a less subsidised model, transport systems should learn the lessons from those that have already followed that path, like London. Six lessons from London: Implement a fares policy that increases them...
18 days ago • 7 min read
Subscribe Welcome Transport Leaders! Welcome to this week's edition of my newsletter, your 5-minute guide to key strategic transport topics around the world. Since this week is International Women's Day, I want to thank two outstanding female transport leaders I recently had the pleasure of working with: Benedicte Colin and Lyndal Punch. This week, we are covering rail in the US, road safety, and New Zealand's changing transport strategy, but we begin by looking at Germany's recently launched...
21 days ago • 7 min read
March 6th, 2025 Subscribe From Cautious to Courageous: Supporting Political Leaders to Achieve Bold Reform Key Takeaways Our traditional model of the lone political leader (leader) driving policy reform is far too narrow and is not delivering the needed reforms. One way of broadening our horizons is to consider the political risk appetite and reform competency matrix for leaders. The matrix provides the public service with four ways forward for supporting leaders in reforms more holistically:...
24 days ago • 8 min read
Subscribe Welcome Transport Leaders! Welcome to this week's edition of my newsletter, your 5-minute guide to key strategic transport topics around the world. This week is the second anniversary of the Tempi train crash in Greece. The crash is a huge political issue in Greece, where a general strike halted air, sea, and rail transport as protestors accused the government of a cover-up. We begin today by trying to learn the lessons not from the accident but from how the aftermath was handled....
28 days ago • 6 min read
February 27th, 2025 Subscribe Using public transport for welfare is bad for transport Why we should stop using public transport for welfare Key Takeaways Public transport is often used as a tool of welfare for households on low incomes through cheap fares. While cheap fares often provide a short-term boost to public transport patronage, they also come with several problems, including a reduction in services and investment, which can lead to a decline in patronage in the medium and longer...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Subscribe Welcome Transport Leaders! Welcome to this week's edition of our newsletter, your 5-minute guide to key strategic transport topics around the world. This week, we saw the tragic incident at New Delhi Station, a Canadian government announcement on High-Speed Rail, and the beginnings of a legal fight over New York's congestion relief zone. A proper review is rightly taking place following the incident in Delhi, but the overcrowding of stations is something where I believe we are...
about 1 month ago • 8 min read