Episode 5 – Integrated transport is about customer choice and creating positive experiences, Adam Simmons, National Highways
Epsiode intro
Hello and thanks for tuning into The Interchange Podcast produced in association with Arcadis and hosted by independent broadcaster, Ayo Abbas. Today we are going client side with our guest Adam Simmons, Director Strategic Planning & Analysis at National Highways.
Our discussions included:
the impact moving from a 1 year to 5-year investment cycle had on National Highways strategy
how integrated delivery must focus on giving customers choice and a positive experience
the work being done to deliver the new Road Investment Strategy which will run from 2025 - 2030
the importance of making small incremental changes on the road to achieving integrated transport delivery improvements
the role of data as a powerful tool in unlocking passenger choice
why we mustn’t forget the human factor and how infrastructure impacts our emotions.
The Interchange podcast interviews leading changemakers and thinkers about how integrated transport infrastructure is the solution to achieving a more effective and decarbonised transport network.
The Interchange Podcast series is part of Interchange, which culminates around a two-day major event about rethinking transport infrastructure taking place in Manchester on 27/28 February 2024. If you’d like to attend, you can book your place here.
Andy Clarke
Adam is Director of Strategic Planning and Analysis at government-owned company National Highways (formerly Highways England). Adam is leading National Highways’ work to prepare for Road Period 3 (2025-2030). He is responsible for producing evidence and plans to support National Highways’ programme of work for operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A-roads during this period and beyond. This includes National Highways’ Connecting the Country long-term plan, Strategic Road Network Initial Report, Strategic Business Plan and Delivery Plan, as well as other evidence and advice to government. Adam has been a senior leader in public sector transport for more than 15 years.
“To deliver integrated transport there's a whole system of people there that really all need to work together. It's not in any one personal organisation’s gift to achieve that.”
Resources and Links
About Interchange UK
The Interchange Podcast series is part of Interchange, which culminates around a two-day major event about rethinking transport infrastructure taking place in Manchester on 27/28 February 2024. If you’d like to attend you can book your place here.
Transcript
SPEAKERS
Adam Simmons, Ayo Abbas
Ayo Abbas 00:03
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the interchange Podcast, produced in association with Arcadis and hosted by me Ayo Abbas. The Interchange Podcast is all about having conversations with leading change makers and thinkers about how we can make integrated transport infrastructure happen. My guest today is Adam Simmons from National Highways. We've covered a lot of ground in this interview, including how he feels that integrated transport delivery really boils down to two things, giving customers choice and focusing on providing them with a positive experience. We also talk about how Adam and his team are developing the new plan for road investment, which will run from 2025 to 2030. And finally, we talk about how the change from a one year to a five year planning cycle really benefited National Highways and their supply chain and the projects that they deliver. Anyway, let's get on with listen to the show. Enjoy. Hi, Adam, thanks so much for coming on to Interchange. And can you introduce yourself and your role at National Highways.
Adam Simmons 01:09
job title is Director for Strategic Planning and Analysis actually is quite a range of things I'm responsible for there. But really, for me, the teams that I lead my work with, but making better decisions within national highways or within transport was that supporting business cases for individual investments, early use or options and designed for schemes and investments are some of the bigger things like providing the evidence and plans for the next five year roads and funding period? Or indeed looking further out? 10, 15 20 years out and thinking about the longer term plans for the strategic road network, which are England's motorways and major roads. So
Ayo Abbas 01:51
there's the strategic there's a 2050 strategic road network vision, isn't there and document. And that's your guiding light? How does that work? That's right, yes
Adam Simmons 01:59
document that we call connecting the country. And we sort of most recently published a version of that last year, in 2023. I think kind of the title sort of says it for me that that very much is our purpose today, and will be our purpose for 2050 is our roads connect the country that connects all our major cities, all our all our ports. A huge number of people travel, they're probably a thing a lot of people forget huge amount of freight and logistics users on our network. So yeah, 2050 vision probably says that service to our customers should continue. But there are actually recognising that there are changing trends, we were expecting traffic to grow, we want to improve safety, we want to improve performance. We want to reduce the carbon from our construction and from the vehicles using that. We want to embrace trends, like how people use data, how new technologies on there. So I'd say the purpose always remains the same. But obviously, we want to make steady improvement across a whole range of things. And the vision helps us do that. And
Ayo Abbas 03:10
then you're RP3. That's right your road plan. So they help you in that shorter term. This is how we're going to do it for the next five years and things like that. That's how you do it is to break down that plan into more manageable chunks.
Adam Simmons 03:28
That's right, yeah. And since so since 2015, so government had a whole suite of policies under what they called Road Reform. So that created National Highways as a government company. And absolutely, as you say, we then shifted from what was really annual planning and investment to five year plans. And actually, that's been really important to help us have longer term sort of planning, which can sort of bring good things like cost efficiencies, and so on better certainty to things helps actually bring innovation, but how we sort of decarbonise construction and things like that, that sort of five year period is sort of how we do our investments. But I think it is really important that we have that longer term view, because I think otherwise those sort of five year periods might just feel very similar sort of one period to another, you've got that slightly longer term view, you can start to say, well, actually, there's some bigger trends we need to manage here. So let's make sure we do the things now that can enable those longer term ambitions.
Ayo Abbas 04:27
And you know, you're talking about bigger trends in terms of your analysis part of your role. How do you identify those bigger trends? Because I'm quite fascinated by that.
Adam Simmons 04:36
Yeah, I mean, I think it's probably going to be a theme that we'll sort of talk about here. So Ayo almost, there's never one sort of particular thing, there's sharn't name the supermarket, but this sort of every little helps, mantra is one that I think that I think is quite a good one, lots of small improvements. So, you know, it might be things like just our understanding of and drawing on data for, say, the Met Office about how we see trends in precipitation and rainfall changing. So what does that mean for the potential risk for flooding on our network? How do we have to manage that. So that whole climate resilience side of things, we might be taking longer term traffic forecasts from the Department for Transport and understanding how traffic might grow and how the mix of vehicles on the network sort of may may change. And of course, we have a lot of our own models there that help us understand those sorts of trends on there. So we're trying to draw in quite a lot of sources of data and information, just to start to understand how people are real people and real sort of companies.
Ayo Abbas 05:44
That's fantastic. So it's a great for my next question, which is around. So talking about real people, and real people, obviously, use the transport system in an integrated manner. So you've get on the bus, you might drive to the station, what's role does National Highways play in integration and delivering that integrated transport network? And why do you feel that's important? What's what's more? Well?
Adam Simmons 06:07
Yeah, I think, again, there's a lot there. And I think I'd break it down, I'd say, first, it's really important that actually, we have our primary focus on that on our network. The strategic road network is an important part of that whole integrated system. So we get the basics, right, there's keep operating it, maintaining it, renewing it, enhancing our network, so we can continue to provide that service. And I'll, there's a whole bunch of stats I guess I could use about the importance of the strategic road network, I'll just give you one because it fascinates me. And it just astonishes me every time I hear it. The companies, the industries and sectors that depend particularly on the strategic road network. So obviously, logistics companies, but manufacturing, construction, those that sort of obviously moving goods around, those companies contribute 410 billion pounds in gross value added to the economy. So we've got to keep serving those those customers and, and obviously the, you know, the millions of trips that sort of happen on our network. So I think starting with that first is really important. But totally, we get that it's not just about the strategic road network, is really important that we think about that whole, that whole trip, so whether that's us, considering how our road network interacts with the local road network, that's really important, how we are supporting big investments like high speed to coming into Birmingham, thinking about how our roads service, the interchange station that's going to be built there and, and supporting that. And indeed, sort of working with organisations like Network Rail, to say, well, let's think about how goods move on road and rail, let's think about what might work well, for rail will work for roads. And sometimes we even support Network Rail and thinking about making their business cases to help integration. So I think we start with getting our network, continuing to provide the services it's doing so you continue to improve that. But then also sort of definitely have an eye to the how that whole journey happens for for our customers.
Ayo Abbas 08:26
So how closely do you work with your partners like Network Rail and the other main infrastructure bodies?
Adam Simmons 08:33
How does that work? Because there's a few, there's a few sort of things I can share there. So let's, let's start here, Network Rail. I think a good example is a piece of work that we did together, I think kind of a couple of years ago now. It's used the technical phrase and multimodal study. We will get that but we we looked at the sort of goods that are coming from, like Southampton port area, travelling up to the Midlands, where obviously a lot of distribution centres there. And we're starting to identify what actually these sorts of goods that might need to be moved, could do well, on rail, these sorts of goods and services might need to go on road. So we did that thinking together there. And almost from that. I know that we're out of identify parts of their network where there are certain bottlenecks as we've been able to work with them to support business cases to sort of improve the infrastructure there. What I would add, I think it highlights a really interesting challenge for integration is I think it's all very well, National Highways, Network Rail identifying that, obviously we then have the logistics industry. And obviously, you know, that's that's them moving by whichever mode and as you speak to the logistics sector, they will say, well, actually, they probably have very little choice about how they've moved things because it is their customers that will say, I need this thing moving from here to there, at this time in this sort of way. So actually, there's a whole system of people there that really all need to work together. It's not not in any one sort of personal organisations gift sort of to to achieve that. So I think that's where we have worked with a particular partner in that space. Another thing I would just say is, you mentioned the the five year road period, government is what's called a road investment strategy. And in that we sort of pulled out a whole bunch of evidence, but we do very explicitly bring evidence in from sub national transport bodies, local authorities, local development companies to understand where certain, say housing developments happening, or where there are particular local sort of transport initiatives happening. So our plans and our evidence to government explicitly, our licence requires us to do this, brings in that evidence there. So we very consciously reach out and understand the bigger picture, and how we, as a network sit within, obviously, what all those range of objectives that local authorities national government is trying to achieve.
Ayo Abbas 11:16
I mean, that's a huge remit for you to put together. So for something like RP3, how long would you how long? Do you have to put it together? That's it, I guess it launches in 2025. Right? What's your
Adam Simmons 11:27
Our road periods, So the current road period 2 will end in March 2025. And we go straight into road period 2025 to 2030. It's a process that takes some years, actually. So when I finished work on Road Period 2 and RIS 2, were more or less done we went straight on to thinking about, about RIS3 whether that was that longer term plan or starting to pull the evidence together? Together for it? And actually, yes, that's, that's quite important. Government is taking decisions here, for well risk to was 24 billion pounds worth of investment over five years. Yeah, it's about 5 billion pounds a year that we're investing there. And that's something that actually the National Infrastructure Commission is said that between inter urban road and rail, about 15 billion pounds of investment is that right level going forward. So about 5 billion for the strategic roads is that that level of might might expect. And obviously, you know, we are spending taxpayers money here, we've got to make sure we're focusing on the right things, Each road period will feel, hopefully to our customers feel very very similar, you know, providing that same service, but the challenges will be different. So for example, we really need to think about how we're looking at the assets on our network, how we were, you know, replacingreplacing sort of hundreds of miles of asphalt, road surfacing, or certain bridges and structures, we'll just need be reaching a point in their life, to keep them safe and serviceable and open. And what we want to do is make sure that we don't get to a point where there's an emergency closure, and suddenly, we have to sort of close things down, we're trying to do that in a very planned way. So we're working with government to go through all those ranges of challenges there. And making that case for it. But I think one thing that's quite interesting for me, that we've talked about recently is recognising to your point on integration, how you're investing in some of the smaller things like your junction improvements can be really important, they can be really helped to really unlock some of those bottlenecks that affect people on a day to day basis. And we talked about levelling up, and people getting to work and so on. So that's really important. So we've been able to work with government on that sort of thing, and some very targeted ways to improve safety.
Ayo Abbas 13:55
That's really, really good. And in terms of integrated transport overall. What enablers Do you see and what blockers Do you see, one of the things I find interesting is that, you know, that national highway has moved from the one year planning cycle to a five year period, which is a huge difference, especially for investment. And do you think that's helped you in terms of unlocking integrated transport?
Adam Simmons 14:18
I mean, I certainly do, I think the the five year settlements and those requirements I talked about where we have to bring in evidence and views from a range of other organisations. And that fundamentally is supporting that decision making has been has been sort of really, really important. And you said, you know, maybe share a thought about an enabler for for integration. I think going forward, one of the things will be really important will be will be data for be the information that our customers are consuming to make decisions. Now, what we're starting to do now I think we'll just we'll do more and more of, we have a whole range of data. And soon in this year, we'll be providing our data around road closures. Because obviously, you know, region roadworks and so on and things like that, that pretty much affects journeys, knowing when they are providing those data in a way that Wayfinder providers like Google, like Waze can sort of take that and sort of push that out to their customers. And I think it's recognising that we own a lot of very useful and important data, we got to be as accurate. People are not going to have a National Highways app on their face. You know, whichever local area they live in there, they'll have Google they'll have, they'll have ways that have those sorts of things. So if we can provide data to those organisations in the right way, make sure it's accurate. And people can make sort of companies can make really informed decisions about their whole sort of trips and journeys. And I think one exciting thing there is, and I've used Google and Waze is the sort of the apps and organisations people be aware of, but I think get to a point where some quite specific customer groups might have their own apps to help a smaller sort of group. So if we think about people with reduced physical mobility, or all neuro divergence, and might have particular challenges, how they move and interact with the network, actually having the data so that those quite targeted, sort of apps can sort of help people be really, really important. So I think there's there's things there. I think you mentioned, what might be a blocker, wouldn't say necessarily, there's a blocker, but there are, I think there are certainly sort of challenges. Now, one thing people have often talked about is to say, we just need an Integrated Transport Strategy, as if it will magically sort of make it happen. Now, I certainly don't disagree that with the app there the principles of thinking, integrated planning, creating an integrated transport network, of course, that is the goal. I don't think one strategy actually is really feasible, or necessarily will sort of make a difference. I do think it strategic road investment is done on a five year basis, network ran investment is done on a five year basis, we kind of have those sort of the tools there for it. I think, like I said before, it's actually a lot of hard won individual, small improvements that we can make to achieve what we want to with integration. And I think it is about lots of good dialogues amongst multiple people and sort of everyone playing their part, but not necessarily saying we are one persons that are holds the key to unlocking this. And what I would say is that then there are new partners in there as a whole bunch of traditional transport partners, of course, we need to keep working with. But we're starting to work, say with power companies to unlock good facilities, charging facilities for electric vehicle users, that's going to be a new challenge as a new partnership. Data brings new partnership between transport and sort of data and information provision. And I think, being able to move through that and sort of keep making more and more of those partnerships, and working through those really wicked problems and challenges is how we're going to get to integration.
Ayo Abbas 18:42
So you reckon the overall integrated plan would just be too much?
Adam Simmons 18:45
Or to try and boil it into one sort of document? And that's it is it? Is it that an ambition, that can be five pages and just says this is not long to achieve? Which we probably know what the ambition is. So is that useful? Otherwise, it just starts to well nobody prints anything off anymore, do they? But it would start to be quite a thick document, if you try to sort of, I don't know, say I'd rather the time having that dialogue with Network Rail, logistics companies, their customers or with data providers or with some national transport bodies or local development companies and think, how do we look at that particular challenge here and really collectively, look to look to solve it.
Ayo Abbas 19:31
So when you worked at the DfT, I'm going to slightly come off National Highways. So when you worked at the DfT, you worked, you worked on integrated transport delivery for specific nodes. So rail and aviation. So what from when you were there, could you see that? I guess the public sector could learn for the private sector or vice versa.
Adam Simmons 19:52
I have to look at it all, don't they image, which isn't easy for the government. Okay, so on to our last question. In your ideal world, what would you see integrated transport infrastructure looking like by 2035? Yeah, I think actually where it did work best and I think still does work best and I think you're starting to see more and more of that is And I've said it before where there is genuine dialogue between the private sector and and the public sector, there will be certain things that only government can do. And if we take something like decarbonisation, National Highways, we have an ambition that by 2030, as a company will, the emissions we are responsible for, we will be net zero by 2030. By 2040, through our suppliers and the construction and maintenance will be will be net zero for construction and maintenance by 2040. We're supporting government in their ambitions for the vehicles that use the network to be net zero by 2050. It's only government that can legislate for a mandate that says after a certain date, you can no longer buy a new petrol diesel vehicle, you can only buy a hybrid or electric vehicle in time only by a pure electric, same for HGVs. So the fact that governments take that sort of policy decision and created that mandate is really important. Only they can do that. We can work, say with power companies and motorway service areas to get the right power connections there to help create the charging facilities that that when will enable those we can, add traffic officers are thinking about how they remove broken down electric vehicles from the network. Because you have to do it in a different way how you would you can't just tow one off in the way you took off a petrol or diesel vehicle. Even small things like that, yeah, if you pull it you tend to spoil the motors on the skids and skis and they can sort of be towed off that way. So we're thinking about all of those, all of those things. There. So I do think that's where it works well. I think were a government company like National Highways, Network Rail, or what have you, I think we are well placed to help make some of those new partnership relationships with, say, this sort of data, sort of app information providers, power companies, and so on, I don't think central government needs to do that. But a government company can be well placed to do that. Of course, then in the private sector, manufacturers and so on, we can we can sort of work, work with them. And I think there's going to be untapped things as well, you know, there are partnerships, we've not even perhaps considered that we just need to be sort of ready and alive to respond to when those opportunities come up. So I think for me, that's sort of what what well, there, what I would also say is within government, back to that point around, what's an integrated strategy. Government departments are taking these decisions about how to invest across the whole of transport all the time, spending reviews, and budgets and things happen. And there are hard decisions about how we invest in active travel, in roads, in rail, in aviation, and obviously, in a broader context in hospitals and schools and everything else. Yeah, so yeah, 10 year time time horizon, I think it's quite a sensible, sensible sort of period to be to be looking at. I think, for me, there's probably two things to, to kind of draw out, I think, first is that people using transport and like we say, we recognise that integrated transport, it's using different modes and so on. But it's people having choice. And I think there's a few things there obviously, for transport providers, such as National Highways, we want to make sure that our network continues to provide the level of performance that that people are expecting, and obviously making improvements to that, particularly on things like safety. Like I said, before, I do think data can be really powerful, to enabling that choice. And whether that's having the information that can just say, Well, if you want to make this particular journey, leaving at a different time, taking a different route, different mode, making sure that data and people having access to that data can be a sort of really key way to unlock. I think that integration there. The second thing, though, I'd kind of add to that, though, is that I think the experience matters, and particularly for for transport across the piece. I think, we've recently opened some improvements on the A 14, and yes, journey times have improved by 20 minutes. Yes, safety has improved. Critically though, in our evaluation, we found that people feel safer, the improvements to the road because there happened to be a lot of HGV journies on that same section, they just feel less anxious, less stressed, they feel safer because of the improvements and they feel sort of less hemmed in by it by those HGVs. And I think we really get the integrated transport, right, we can not only provide a good service in in sort of numbers terms, but we can provide that much better experience that better customer service and that's certainly something for us in national highways really trying to add to what we do. And that would be my, my sort of my aim my ambition for for for now, coming into 10 years time. Fantastic. Thank you so much, Adam, and thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you very much. Thanks for listening to Interchange. And remember, it's not just a podcast, Interchange is much more. It's also a two day major exhibition and conference taking place on February the 27th and 28th in Manchester Central, head to www.interchange-uk.com to find out more.
