Podcast: Episode 2 – Simon Reed, Transport for London

During the episode, we speak to Simon about the 10th anniversary of TfL’s iBus service going live – the service he initially joined the authority to work on – before discussing the need for a logical, business-first approach to new mobility and new technologies.

Within this, we discuss why passenger information services like iBus are still lacking in so many transport services, and the importance of policy and data to making a success of passenger information services. Growing customer expectations for accurate, personalised information must be met, yet some are struggling to catch up with the demands of the past.

Simon also explains the roles of transport authorities and operators in enabling multimodal journeys – who is responsible for what, and where is the line drawn? Sticking with multimodality, we venture into emerging modes of transport, how the new mobility landscape is evolving and the challenges facing new services – always with the business model in mind.

There’s also discussion of the cost of providing services as reliable and as frequent as London’s, and why this is so difficult to replicate outside of major cities – particularly in rural and suburban communities, despite the fact that suburban transport has such potential capacity for growth.

The Intelligent Transport Podcast is a bi-monthly podcast that takes an in-depth look at the current state of affairs in the urban mobility landscape. In each episode, the Editor of Intelligent Transport will speak with transport experts from around the globe to address the challenges that transport operators, authorities, and cities are facing.