October 2025: A message from our Chair

Dear TPS Members,

Autumn is flying by, and October has been another busy month for the TPS and transport more generally, with announcements on New Towns, Place-based business case pilots for major transport projects, and a new Bus Services Act amongst other things.

The TPS’s brilliant policy panel has been very active over the past month, publishing responses to the Green Book Review (including detailed recommendations to DfT on the implications for TAG), and to the Planning Committee Reform consultation (highlighting the implicit car-centric bias in so many planning decisions). Huge amounts of work and deep thinking go into these responses, and I’d strongly encourage you to take a look.

The TPS board and our regional and national events committees are working flat-out to deliver an exciting programme of in-person and online events right across the UK to celebrate Transport Planning Day. In anticipation of the forthcoming National Integrated Transport Strategy, we have themed this year’s events around the “integration imperative”.

I’m looking forward to hosting our event in London at the ICE on 10^th November (which includes high profile speakers Ruth Cadbury MP, Vernon Everitt and Andrew Summers from Transport East), as well as attending our Manchester event on 11^th November, so do come along to one of those and say hello if you’re able to. Thanks to our Transport Planning Day sponsors - Tracsis, Jacobs, Stantec, IDASO, Kestrel Surveys, Velocity, Believ, Advanced Transport Research and Charge Surveys - we couldn’t put on this event without their generous support.

We have also had the tricky job of voting on our next Transport Planner and Young Transport Planner of the Year, which will be announced at our London transport planning day event. 

Once all our Transport Planning Day celebrations are over, the Board will be turning its attention to planning our 2026 programme of activities, so if you have any suggestions or would like to get more involved in the TPS, please do get in touch (chair@tps.org.uk) – we’d love to hear from you!