Learning from Europe – How to deliver world class transport

Date and time: Thursday 20 November, 12:30 to 1:45pm

Many European countries have world class transport – frequent, regular, reliable trains and buses, and high-quality active travel infrastructure. As a result, public transport and walking/cycling trips per capita are much higher than in the UK (outside of London). This is not a fluke of history, as many of these countries had similar problems in the 1960s, but they managed to turn their networks around through sustained levels of investment, good policies and innovative ways to raise revenue.

This webinar will discuss what we can learn from Europe and how we can deliver world class transport in the UK based on best practice examples from the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and France.

This is one of a series of webinars showcasing the work funded by the Foundation for Integrated Transport (FIT). It will be chaired by FIT Chair, Stephen Joseph, with presentations from Jonathan Bray, Roger Clarke and Beate Kubitz, all of whom have received funding from FIT and bring a great deal of expertise and knowledge.

This event is free to attend.

See past events here https://integratedtransport.org.uk/events

Speakers

Jonathan Bray, FIT fellow and independent sustainable transport advisor

Decarbonising the suburbs: Three lessons from three places

Jonathan Bray has decades of experience of making progressive change happen on transport - from stopping road programmes to bringing buses back under public control. His most recent full time role was fifteen years as Director of the Urban Transport Group (which brings together the transport authorities for the UK’s largest urban areas) before becoming a freelance consultant and writer on transport. He now works with a diverse range of organisations including the Welsh Government, UITP, Good Journey and Passenger Transport magazine. He is also a fellow of the Foundation for Integrated Transport where he is carrying out a year long project on decarbonising transport in suburbs. You can find out more about Jonathan at at www.jonathan-bray.com

Roger Clarke, FIT grantee and trustee of Hope Valley Climate Action

Switzerland in the Peak District

Roger is the convenor of the travel and transport group within Hope Valley Climate Action. He is a board member of the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust and the Foreign Policy Centre. He has been national chair of Friends of the Earth, CEO at the Youth Hostels Association, and a member of the Peak District National Park Authority.

Panellist

Beate Kubitz, FIT fellow

Beate Kubitz is an expert in future mobility and the role it plays in carbon reduction. Her specialist consultancy provides research, innovation and policy development at local and national levels. She is a course contributor and visiting lecturer on the Future of Mobility for the Operational Transport Planning Module of the MSc Transport Planning at the University of Hertfordshire. In 2020, she was awarded a fellowship by the Foundation for Integrated Transport to develop research into the impact of rural mobility on city centre traffic. Beate is a contributor to several transport journals, the author of the UK Annual Survey of Mobility as a Service 2017-2020, and her book, Mobility as a Service, was published in 2024 by the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Beate is a passionate cyclist and founded electric cargobike project, Cargodale, in Calderdale, West Yorkshire.