The Transport Technology Forum Conference is underway in Leicestershire.
Highways News is keeping you up to date with the latest talking points.
9.40
Darren Capes, TTF Manager and Head of Road Infrastructure Technology at the Department for Transport gets the event underway.
He welcomes delegates and talks about the key data demonstrations to come during the two days here.
“We are seeing more of a focus about how we use data in the infrastructure and in vehicles to deliver new services,” he says.
He talks about the Road Safety Strategy and how technology is vital to achieve the targets.
9.45
The DfT’s new Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Patricia Thornley, gives her first keynote to the TTF.
Professor Thornley comments that she’s impressed by the exhibition and then talks about science, innovation and technology and how it can shape future transport.
She says to get innovation through, government, industry and academia must work together, and points to a number of papers published by government. She says the industrial strategy is powering government policy but hardly mentions transport, so we as an industry must promote transport.
AI and autonomy are really, really important, she says. There is a huge focus on the ability of AI and other technologies such as quantum to kick start growth. If you can’t find money in transport, look at AI and quantum funding and see how you can get transport into that.
She stresses alignment with policy to get products adopted and to get the concepts to people beyond the transport sector.
We want to understand better how to use AI and how we can use it to provide data around how we are kickstarting economic growth and delivering growth. (See here).
“If I can get data from you that shows how technology is improving transport around the country, I can make the case,” she says.
10.00
Next up, DfT Head of Digital Twins George Economides.
He defines a digital twin as a two-way communication between a physical asset and its digital representation with a functional output, and that digital twins lend themselves to increasing automation, with right time inforamation to keep up to date and enable predictive management.
He lists examples where digital twins have helped, from reduced emissions to improved safety, accelerating new technolgies.
He summarises the DfT programme around leadership, infrastructure, applications, skills and communications and talks about working with the National Digital Twin Programme to enable safe, secure and interoperable access.
10.15
Next we’re talking about the importance of fitting in with European Standards with Mohanad Ismail, Associate Director of WSP, talking about “Why Europe Matters”.
He opens sayin ghat the government should do less, and to reuse things if possible.
He summarises the European Transport and Mobility Landscape around EU policy and strategy, data and digital mobility, connected and automated, sustainability and standardisation and collaboration.
He explains how the current UK position mirrors the EU direction, for example around road safety, and there are parallels in data ecosystems. He says CAM ambitions are aligned, urban mobility and EV transition is following similar trajectories and there are shared standards.
He then focusses on a “practical real life example” – the Data for Road Safety initiative and lists key benefits around supporting the UK’s road safety strategy, enhances hazard detection, future proofs Euro NCAP integration and contributes to Vision Zero goals. He points to this site.
Mr Ismail then talks about potential future benefits to the UK around napcore, Sensoris, TISA/C-Roads and Euro NCAP.
10.30
We now hear from Michaela Nelson, Head of Advanced Connectivity Technologies at DfT to talk about assessing the digital connectivity requirements of the UK’s transport network.
She explains how fragmented connectivity is:
And discusses a delivery approach until 2027 across transport, water and energy.
The opportunities identified are around cross-modal opportunities including real-time data for trnasport integration, dynamic traffic management and infrastructure monitoring for predictive maintenance and improved safety, with strategic opportunities around new 5G system FRMCS on railways, connected vehicles and beyond line of site operation of unmanned arial systems.
Users and use cases are around travellers, logistics and transport operators, vehicles and infrastructure managers.
She summarises the needs assessment for the road network and use cases and impacts:
She says it is difficult to track how digital connectivity delivers quantifiable benefits so they are working on making a clear case for improving digital connectivity and plugs this survey.
10.45
We now hear from Michael-Jordan Faucher-Folie, transport lead at sponsor TPXimpact to talk about what transport can learn from the rest of government.
He talks about Hackney community transport and how it supported individuals to find and connect with individuals, help carers and and the cared for get about. And he learned how transport is a means to make positive change for citizens in our society.
He lists lessons learned across government, from building a community of local planners to make it easier to apply for funding. “Across all of our projects, there is a theme – data challenges are human challenges.”
He points out “the planning system was not designed for the internet” and then says “the planning system was not designed”. He explains “we were brought in to make planning work for the 21st Century’ and opened the open digital planning community, around standards, services and support, and built the Planning Data Platform.
He asks the audience “what areas of transport require a human approach to data?”
He then talks about his initiative to reduce paperwork and he talks about his equivalent to Woolworth’s Pick n Mix to be pick n mix for applications, saving assessors and increasing applications by 400%, and draws a parallel between funding service design and transport, so instead of creating multiple unique application processes and streamline the funding mechanism that we can all use.
11.00
We’re now taking a break for coffee and visiting the exhibition. See you at 11.45.
11.45
We’re back and Head of Road Infrastructure Technology at the DfT, Darren Capes, is talking about developing a set of deliverable connected vehicle services.
He explains it’s a new concept and we are thinking about data as a massive resource that is under-used.
He explains there are connected vehicles with increasing levels of data, and connected infrastructure, connected services and then users. So this framework is considering a likely range of services, providing a tool for thinking about services and interventions. It allows services to be ordered into groups that can be delivered now or later, and provides a mechanism for considering policy.
He sums up the wider objectives, ensuring services deliver benefits:
Darren Capes explains the three connencted infrastructure/vehicle streams:
Stream 1 is infrastructure to vehicle, stream 2 is the vehicle to infrastructure and stream 3, later, is two-way connectivity.
This delivers benefits around moving from the roadside to delivery of data in vehicle, while using vehicle-derived data to better understand the state of the network. Stream 3 can automate management of vehicles and payment for services. He then goes into detail about examples of potential connected solutions that will be demonstrated during interactive sessions on Wednesday (18 March).
He shows the here-and-now solutions that can be better exploited:
He uses the “WhatsApp example” to describe the solutions he is talking about.
“If we don’t do the work we won’t get the funding, so we’re doing the work now,” he concludes.
12.09
He now welcomes Jo Britton, who is director of PACE Development, and independent facilitator who has worked in the consultation on the CVS.
“I observed in the sector so much enthusiasm, and willingness to collaborate,” she says as she summarises the results.
She explains that they consulted with 37 local highway authorities, 42 senior representatives across all English regions, along with 55 organisations in the supply chain, with 72 senior representatives and broad market coverage. She was testing the CVS Framework, identifying adoption barriers and enabling actions.
Local Authorities said connected vehicle services are about evolution of existing transport systems, with a route to proactive network management and an enabler of safer multimodal transport. The supply chain said it’s technically capable of delivering CVS< has a strong commercial appetite and international experience of delivering services. The key is, there is sector alignment and they all support the direction of travel.
A key point is that language is important – it must not just be vehicles but multimodal, framing strengthens the case for adoption and public benefit.
“Data is a strategic enabler”, but the focus is now on governance and ownership, interoperability, efficient sharing at scale and avoiding duplication and lock-in with vendors. Clear frameworks are needed.
They talked about unlocking adoption:
Moving forward, the TTF with LCRIG have worked from understanding and alignment, moving onto enablement and adoption and then scaling this. The next step ois to help create the conditions that enable authorities to adopt services and the market to deliver them at scale.
12.22
Next up, Darren Capes returns to the stage to talk about the Manual for Smart Streets. He says it is a really useful framework to provide guidance for adoption of technology, but he feels it has been under-used. “We now have a strong opportunity to do that,” he says, and he is rethinking the MfSS to turn it into a single point of guidance.
“The MfSS provides a central resource for supporting local authorities and their supply chains in the use of technology to meet wider strategic aims.” He says it’s the took for the DfT to use to support implementation of connected services.
And explains how it may look in the future:
“It won’t be government’s job to deliver that, we will help local authorities and combined authorities deliver this through the Manual for Smart Streets.” He then adds: “By this time next year, we’ll be providing the guidance to help authorities deliver what’s needed for connected services.”
12.32
A panel now discusses the MfSS, supporting the adoption of connected services. The panellists are (L-R in picture):
- Mark Pleydell – DCIS – Digital Controller Interface Standard
- Jonathan Mann – CVS – WSP
- Paul Chandler – DTRO Service Owner at DfT
- Mark Cartwright – UTMC
The panel focused on how better use of data, standards, and collaboration can transform traffic management and enable connected vehicle services. With DCIS, it was highlighted how standardising information about traffic signals ranging from basic network data to detailed configurations and real-time controller outputs, allowing systems to predict and respond to network conditions more effectively.
Speakers emphasised that strong technical foundations already exist, with evolving standards and frameworks (like UTMC) now shifting toward defining practical services that local authorities can implement. The importance of interoperability and avoiding “reinventing the wheel” was repeatedly highlighted.
Digital Traffic Regulation Orders were identified as a major opportunity, enabling accurate, real-time information for drivers and connected systems.
The discussion also stressed empowering local authorities with accessible guidance, shared knowledge, and proven use cases to reduce risk and accelerate adoption. Finally, the UK was positioned as a global leader in this space, with export potential for its standards and data-driven approaches.
13.00
It’s lunchtime now, back at 14.15 for a session chaired by… Paul Hutton.
All the sessions are being recorded and will be shared on the TTF website in due course.
(All pictures – TTF)
