The 22nd Annual Transport Practitioners' Meeting - Call for Papers

09 - 10 July 2025 | Manchester Metropolitan University

About the Transport Practitioners’ Meeting

Visit www.transportconference.co.uk to submit your abstract today!

The Transport Practitioners' Meeting (TPM) is the must-attend annual gathering for all transport planners, modellers, placemakers, and urban transport designers. This event brings together practitioners, policymakers, and academics who will present numerous topical papers over the course of two days, fostering lively debates, networking opportunities, and the dissemination of the latest thinking across the profession. TPM serves as the annual meeting place for the wider transport and built environment community, offering two days of world-class networking, idea sharing, and spirited debate.

We are excited to be heading to Manchester in 2025. The city's well-connected transport infrastructure, recent bus franchising and the expansion of the Bee Network make it a natural meeting point for TPM. Manchester boasts a rich history of innovation and industrial heritage, making it an ideal backdrop for discussions on the future of transport and promises to offer a compelling and engaging backdrop for the conference that encourages knowledge exchange, networking, and forward-thinking discussions.

Why submit an abstract?

Presenting at TPM, regardless of your career level, offers a wealth of valuable opportunities. Seasoned practitioners will find a unique platform to share their expertise with a diverse and knowledgeable community of peers, fostering meaningful debates and the dissemination of valuable insights. For emerging professionals, TPM provides a supportive and friendly environment to build confidence and enthusiasm while presenting to a receptive and knowledgeable audience of fellow practitioners.

All delegates benefit from a range of networking opportunities. Graduates will rub shoulders with CEOs who in turn will be able to chat to the decision makers at Local Authorities. Above all, TPM creates an enjoyable and relaxed atmosphere where professionals can discuss the latest trends, exchange ideas, and cultivate new projects.

Each day of attendance at TPM counts towards Continuing Professional Development Hours.

What topics are people interested in?

Recognising that something you have worked on is of interest to fellow practitioners is the first step; be it delivery of a tricky project, development of new best practice, a piece of research or even a critique of the status quo, TPM is all about sharing knowledge and ideas. With an audience that works across the full spectrum of transport activities, a vast array of topics will be of interest to other delegates.

Below is a list of hot topics we’d encourage people to consider when thinking about developing papers.

Smart Cities

• Automation in transit and freight systems
• MaaS, WaaS and smart ticketing
• Travel Demand Management
• Data collection, interpretation, management

Changing Travel Behaviour

• Evidence based modal shift
• Successful travel plans for schools and businesses
• Bus Back Better and bus priority implementation
• Local traffic neighbourhoods and 15-minute cities

Net-Zero Future

• Case studies of successful implementation of future mobility
• Practical steps and examples of different industry facets working together
• Air Quality Management
• First / last mile solutions and alternative freight

Holistic Planning

• Integrating green infrastructure into transport projects
• Evidence based people centred solutions
• Developing an inclusive transport system
• Change management best practices and lessons learned

Planning the Future

• New or innovative approaches to funding projects
• The changing world of regional transport strategies
• Delivering transport projects in an uncertain political landscape
• Taking account of carbon in transport planning

Communicating and Influencing

• Examples of successful engagement campaigns
• Consultation methods, strategies and best practices
• Getting politicians on side

The Future of Modelling

• Appraisal in an era of growing complexity
• Real-time predictive modelling
• Incident management and planning

Delivering Rural Transport

• Addressing lack of evidence of transport decarbonisation in non-urban locations
• Supporting mode shift in rural environments
• Delivering private sector investment and collaboration on rural mobility schemes

The Shape of the Industry

• Successful collaboration with relevant partner sectors
• Lessons learnt on project development and delivery
• Supporting the industry with skills development

But these are by no means exclusive, we are happy to accept papers on the latest developments in all areas of transport!

How are papers presented?

The conference, which runs over two days from 09 – 10 July 2025, is split into a series of parallel streams, and further divided into a number of sessions. Each session lasts between 90 – 120 minutes and features three or four papers.

Speakers are advised to allow 20 minutes to present their paper and 10 minutes for discussion with the audience; a chairperson ensures that speakers remain within their allotted 30 minutes. This format allows delegates the freedom to explore a wide range of topics and papers that are of direct relevance to their own work areas.

Want to present a workshop?

Workshop sessions will be arranged to allow delegates to explore particular issues in more depth, lasting one hour. We encourage presenters to view workshops as interactive sessions, not simply a longer paper presentation.

How are papers selected?

The TPM Committee considers all submitted abstracts and discuss which ones should be presented at the conference. The intention is to select interesting papers that will inspire lively and fruitful debates. As papers are selected on the basis of the abstracts received, it’s important that abstracts contain sufficient information to demonstrate the value of the paper to transport practitioners. If selected, the abstract title and summary will be used in delegate packs – think about the audience you would like to attract to your presentation when you write this!

Please make sure that you provide enough information about the proposed content of your paper, and any expected conclusions and results, when you prepare your abstract.

What are the timescales?

Friday 24 January 2025 – Deadline for submission of abstracts is twelve noon

Monday 03 March 2025 – Authors will be notified whether their abstract has been selected

Friday 06 June 2025 – Deadline for submission of papers and presentations

Young Practitioners

We love to see papers from those under the age of 28, particularly those working in the public sector. Each year PTRC offers a bursary award to a young professional working in Local Government. This provides free attendance to the conference and applies to sole authors only. There is also a prize up for grabs by young practitioners!

Submit your application for the bursary to shania.mccalla@ptrc-training.co.uk

What needs to go into an abstract?

In order to allow fair evaluation by the TPM Committee, abstracts should be submitted through the website or by following the below format.

• Header: Full names of all authors
• Abstract Title: [Title]
• Submitted as a: [Paper/Workshop proposal]
• Author name/s
• Position/s and Affiliation/s
• Postal Address
• Telephone number
• Email Address
• Please indicate which authors will be presenting the paper at the conference.
• Young Practitioner? Please add a tick mark next to the relevant author’s name(s).
• Abstract (Max. 300 words, outlining):
• Project Idea
• Purpose and Objectives
• Findings and Originality
• Conclusion and Policy Implications
• Keywords: [word one, word two, word three – please refer to TPM themes]
• Summary (Max. 100 words):

The abstract summary will be included in the information made available to delegates in order for them to choose which sessions they would like to attend at the conference.

All text should be in Arial 12pt font, aligned left.

Please note that as with all conferences of this nature, speakers are required to pay to attend. Discounted speaker rates apply.

Submit your abstract:

Online submission

Word template

Who do I send my abstract to?

Please send abstracts to the website or to info@ptrc-training.co.uk by noon on Friday 24 January 2025. If you have any questions about submitting an abstract or any other aspects of the conference, please drop us a line at the same address – we’re here to help.