‘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

  • ITS (UK) launches A-F scale for connected vehicles
    April 12, 2019
    ITS (UK) has developed a ‘Scale of connections for co-operation of connected vehicles’ to help people understand how connected their vehicles are. It mirrors the existing scale for automated vehicles, the SAE international standard, which goes from Level 1 (driver assistance required) to Level 5 (fully autonomous). The ITS (UK) scale, developed by the group’s Connected and Automated Vehicles (C/AV) Forum and supported by the Department for Transport and Highways England, uses letters instead. “Currently a
    Read More
  • Financing the US road infrastructure – road user charging?
    February 2, 2012
    In the US, the National Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission's report to Congress will state that a national, distance-based charging is the only long-term solution to the country's infrastructure financing problems. The Commission's Chair, Rob Atkinson, talks to ITS International
    Read More
  • Financing the US road infrastructure – road user charging?
    February 2, 2012
    In the US, the National Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission's report to Congress will state that a national, distance-based charging is the only long-term solution to the country's infrastructure financing problems. The Commission's Chair, Rob Atkinson, talks to ITS International
    Read More
  • TM 2.0 boost TMC data feed and driver influence
    November 15, 2017
    TM 2.0 views connected vehicles and V2I as two-way communications channels, benefitting traffic management and drivers, as Alan Dron discovers. As connected vehicles are progressively rolled out there will come a point at which traffic managers and traffic management centres (TMCs) will have to gear up to cope with a rapidly-evolving road scenario. The TM 2.0 Platform (see box) is promoting a concept of new-generation traffic management (which carries the same TM 2.0 title) and is studying how future T
    Read More

Highlighted Content