‘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.