A lunchtime conversation on how urban freight can help decarbonise city regions

This event features:

• Maggie Simpson, Director General of the Rail Freight Group
• Clare Linton, Policy and Research Advisor at Urban Transport Group
• (Interviewer) Stephen Joseph, transport expert .

Our city regions rely on the smooth movement of goods to keep supermarket shelves stocked, hospitals supplied with medicine, to deliver construction materials and support thriving economies. However, the current dominance of road freight (using largely fossil fuelled vehicles) produces many negative impacts for our cities, from carbon emissions and noise, to road danger and damage to highway infrastructure.

There are many innovations in the freight sector helping to make operations safer, more sustainable, quieter and more efficient. From conversion of passenger trains to support high speed parcel delivery to city centres; urban consolidation centres in the public sector; use of riverboat services to deliver medical supplies to the NHS; zero emission vehicles in local authority fleets; and the use of technology and data to make deliveries more efficient.

Drawing on the Urban Transport Group’s new report 'Delivering a greener future', we will be discussing the role for these kinds of innovations in enabling freight to make our city regions greener, fairer, healthier and more prosperous places.

About the panel...

Maggie Simpson

Maggie is Director General of the Rail Freight Group, the representative body for rail freight in the UK. Since joining in 2005 she has worked to promote growth in rail freight and to support member companies of the Group in their activities.

Clare Linton

Clare is Policy and Research Advisor at the Urban Transport Group. She conducts research across a range of policy areas including transport and housing, public health, social inclusion, freight, people and skills, sustainability and smart transport futures.

Clare is the lead author on the new ‘Delivering a greener future’ report and co-ordinates UTG’s Urban Freight Working Group.

Clare has a PhD in Low Carbon Technologies from the University of Leeds, and holds a BA in Geography and an MSc in Climate Change and Policy, both from the University of Sussex.

Stephen Joseph, OBE (interviewer)

Stephen is a transport policy consultant, specialising in urban and local issues and in smart transport. He was Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport (formerly Transport 2000) from 1988 to 2018. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Hertfordshire’s Smart Mobility Unit since 2018, having received an honorary doctorate from the University in 2010.

At present, Stephen is a trustee and chair of the Foundation for Integrated Transport. He is a director of the Transport for New Homes project, which the Foundation established. He also chairs the Smart Transport board for Bauer Media and is an adviser to the Rail Devolution Network. He was awarded the OBE in 1996 for services to transport and the environment.