‘Abolish the DfT,’ says UK Transport Systems Catapult boss

Radical steps to improve travellers’ experience of transport in the UK were proposed at ITS International’s MaaS Market conference in London this week. In the keynote speech on day one of the two-day event, UK Transport Systems Catapult CEO Paul Campion said that the public doesn’t really care about transport – all they really want is to get where they are going. “It’s a necessary evil,” he told delegates. “We travel to come to work, to a conference, to take the kids to school – it’s a distress purcha
March 21, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
Radical steps to improve travellers’ experience of transport in the UK were proposed at ITS International’s 8545 MaaS Market conference in London this week.


In the keynote speech on day one of the two-day event, UK 7800 Transport Systems Catapult CEO Paul Campion said that the public doesn’t really care about transport – all they really want is to get where they are going.

“It’s a necessary evil,” he told delegates. “We travel to come to work, to a conference, to take the kids to school – it’s a distress purchase.”

Musing on the fact that it is 100 years since the forerunner of the UK’s current Department for Transport (DfT) was created, Campion added: “I think we should abolish the DfT – we need a ‘Department for Getting to Work on Time’.” His joking point was that, once you define transport as something that needs a governmental department, then the inevitable development is sub-departments in silos, which are “almost in competition with each other”.

MaaS Market London continues today, with speakers including Michael Hurwitz, head of transport innovation at Transport for London, and Crissy Ditmore, director of strategy at Cubic Transportation Systems.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Manchester seeks smart but not selective transport solutions
    January 25, 2018
    Smarter transport relies on better communications both with travellers and between transport providers. Andrew Williams reports. Inrix’s prediction that the cost of traffic congestion will rise by 63% to £21bn per year by 2030 clearly illustrates that, in addition to the ongoing inconvenience and inefficiency, ongoing gridlock is a significant drain on the economy. It is against this backdrop that a Cisco-led consortium has launched CitySpire, a smart transport programme that uses location-based services a
    Read More
  • CES 2020: ITS does Vegas
    March 3, 2020
    Keen to find out what the future holds, 170,000 people gathered in Las Vegas for CES 2020 to see 20,000 product debuts and 4,400 exhibitors... and ITS International was there too (All images: CES®)
    Read More
  • Nothing basic about universal basic mobility
    May 5, 2022
    The concept of universal basic mobility is here: but Shared-Use Mobility Center CEO Benjamin de la Peña tells Ben Spencer that such schemes may not be looking at the right targets
    Read More
  • Is road user charging the first stop for congestion management?
    July 23, 2012
    David Hytch, Information Systems Director at the Greater Manchester Public Transport Executive, considers just where congestion pricing schemes should sit in transport planners' hierarchy of options for managing demand. On the face of it, Greater Manchester in England's proposed congestion charging scheme hit just about every sweet spot possible when it came to convincing the general public of the need for and benefits of such a venture. There was the promise from national government of almost £3bn-worth of
    Read More

Highlighted Content