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John Austin is a transport planner and analyst, public transport industry expert and team leader of 20 years’ experience: based in the UK but with extensive knowledge and understanding of the road-based public transport industry and markets worldwide. He has a multi-disciplinary background in commercial public transport planning and operations, the local authority sector, and information and telecoms strategy. These give him a wide understanding of the issues affecting transport project development - practical, political, financial, and technological.
As a team manager John has an inspirational, supportive, encouraging but goal-orientated style, spurring his teams on to the achievement of excellent outcomes while meeting time and budget constraints.
As a project manager he is thorough, focussed and a strong, collaborative communicator.
John has a sound awareness of commercial pressures, confident marketing skills, and strong data research expertise. He combines a clear appreciation of strategic and economic issues and of the major policy issues in transport and planning with both an attention to detail and technical excellence. His solid analytical and economics skills, clear communication and grasp of the detail necessary to see the implications of strategy means that he contributes great value and insight to research and advice project teams.
John has particular interests in the provision of travel information, in interchange, travel planning, development of sustainable modes of travel, and in workable business models for delivery of quality transport schemes. He believes strongly that Delighting the Customer is the route to delivering profitability and the achievement of stakeholder goals.
John’s passion for delivering sustainable transport - but in a way which is both commercially realistic and takes full account of the needs and lifestyles of users - means that he can both enthuse and inform, and makes him an assured teacher, lecturer and advisor.
John was one of the first to recognise the potential of the Internet for the public transport industry and its customers, initiating the then groundbreaking ‘UK Public Transport Information’ website in 1996. He has worked throughout Europe, and in Australasia and Asia, and is the UK partner in the current three-year European PROCEED project to produce Best Practice Guidance for the provision of bus services in small and medium-size cities. He was also the UK player in the INFOPOLIS 2 European project which produced guidelines for human-computer interfaces for travel information systems. |
Services Provided
- Interim Management in a Local Authority or other public organisation environment, particularly in relation to Transport Planning, Sustainable Travel, or Public Transport
- Advising clients in solving problems relating to Public Transport or the public transport industry, covering both large issues (e.g. Organisation, Regulation and Efficiency) or small local issues. Expertise in Public Transport Planning, Quality Bus Networks / Corridors and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT).
- Assisting Local Authorities and their partners improve Public Transport information and Interchanges; ranging from Developing Public Transport Information Strategies to Managing the introduction of workable processes for ensuring data quality
- Advising on organisational aspects and implications of ITS
- Project Management (including qualification as a PRINCE2 Practitioner)
- Market Research for the Transport Industry: UK, Europe, worldwide
- Commercial Due-Diligence in the bus and coach industries
- Economic analysis of transport issues, including advising on trends within the transport industry in the UK and Europe, particularly within the Public Transport industry, and providing analysis, explanation and advice on National and Local Transport Policies
- Providing strategy advice for organisations active in the Transport sector
- Report-writing / Technical editing / Proof-reading / English-language authoring / editing of documents relating to Transport issues
- Planning Conferences in the Transport field
- Devising / Delivering University, college or in-house Lecturing or Training courses on transport policy, transport operations and transport modelling issues, including the relation of transport to wider issues (e.g. society and lifestyle)
- Chairing Conferences, Working Groups and other Meetings
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Selected Achievements
- Recently acted as Interim Head of Transport Strategy at Central Bedfordshire Council for a period of six months. Was responsible for leading a team of nine staff; for leading the development of the new generation of Local Transport Plans for this new, fast-growing, local authority; for co-ordinating and planning transport infrastructure delivery; and for leading on improvement and development of sustainable travel options. Dealt with other senior officers, Directors, and elected Members. Contributed to regional forums and liaised with other agencies and voluntary and private-sector organisations.
- The UK partner in PROCEED – a European collaborative project producing a Best Practice Guide toolkit to bus service provision in small and medium-size cities. John has particular responsibilities for providing analysis and insight relating to both the UK and Ireland.
- Was awarded a prestigious Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship to visit Hong Kong, Australia and Singapore for seven weeks to study electronic traveller information systems for public transport, smartcard systems and processes and also busways.
- Initiating, designing, producing and publicising the ground-breaking UK Public Transport Information Website; launched by a Government Transport Minister in 1998.
- Advising on ways of returning the public transport services in Riga, Latvia, to financial viability, including a performance analysis, a study of the city’s concessionary fares scheme and analysis of revenue apportionment to different operators. This project was funded by the World Bank, and John was subcontracting to EDAW.
- Advising a major transport group on the revenue potential, cost implications and legal framework of Midland Metro Line 1, and therefore on what basis it should respond to an approach to become involved.
- Various roles relating to the ground-breaking Transport Direct travel information portal. These have included advising on certain functionality and usability aspects, auditing major processes, and designing and carrying out detailed testing of key data and functionality. Much of this work was carried out through Carl Bro.
- Devising a successful strategy for implementing traveline in Scotland by the required introduction date, working to a complex client agenda and producing a solution which took account of all the various parties’ interests and objectives. John was subcontracted to Carl Bro IBI for this project.
- Carrying out a technical evaluation of the Travelbristol.org public transport / walking / cycling Journey Planner website and advising Bristol City Council on a policy strategy for taking it forward.
- Part of the Carl Bro-led team producing the specification for the FareXChange Protocol to enable the exchange of public transport industry fares data. Had lead responsibility for the gathering of data and intelligence.
- Producing draft National Guidelines on Bus Stop Information for ATCO (Association of Transport Co-ordinating Officers), with Peter Warman (Warman Consult).
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Recent Projects
Modal choice decision making - view
PROCEED - view
Best Practice Guide on PTI Web Sites - view
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