Greetings from our new Chief Executive

7 March 2025  |  Ben Plowden  |  Buses

“In the late 1980s, I was the ‘Information and Policy Officer – Transport and Consumer Affairs’ for what was then Age Concern England (now Age UK). It was my second job. My role was to provide information and advice to elderly people on transport and how to meet the dual challenge of staying warm and paying gas and electricity bills from often very modest incomes.

I got two insights from that experience that have shaped my career ever since. The first was the importance of the quality of the transport system in determining the quality of life of individuals and communities. It is also critical for delivery of wider societal goals, whether in terms of public health, the economy or the environment. The second insight was more personal – that I was better suited to trying to improve things at the system level than by advising people one by one.

I cut my campaigning and influencing teeth at CPRE (then the Council for the Protection of Rural England), under the watchful eye of legendary campaigner (and now Dame) Fiona Reynolds. From CPRE, I went on to become the first-ever CEO of the Pedestrians Association, having raised development funding from the Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Trust. We re-launched the Pedestrians Association as Living Streets a few years later and the rest, as they say, is history.

While at Living Streets, I met the then CEO of Transport for London Bob Kiley and got pulled into Transport for London, where I spent the next 20 years in a series of senior roles planning and delivering a sustainable urban transport system. That ‘hands on’ experience gave me an invaluable insight into the practical and political realities of creating better transport – transport that is safe, accessible, reliable, affordable, integrated and decarbonised.

After spending some time in consulting with PA Consulting and as Chair of the Transport Planning Society, it is a huge privilege to have been appointed as the new Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport. These are challenging times for the transport sector. The escalating climate emergency means we urgently need to decarbonise the UK’s transport system and improve its climate resilience. The cost-of-living crisis is worsening transport-related social exclusion. And without proper investment we face continuing decline in the state of both local and national transport.

But it is also a time of great opportunity. The new Government has set out a positive path towards a sustainable and integrated UK transport system. It has promised to deliver rail reform; expand and improve local buses; and make “unprecedented” investment in active travel. These changes should be underpinned by an Integrated National Transport Strategy and further devolution of powers and funding to local and regional government.

The key issue is whether the Government is willing to provide the long-term funding and other resources needed to deliver this ambitious programme. And recent statements from Chancellor Rachel Reeves about the primacy of the Government’s growth mission suggest there are interesting debates ahead about what form that growth should take and how to reconcile it with other goals like decarbonisation.

Campaign for Better Transport is uniquely placed to help national and local decision makers meet these challenges and realise these opportunities. It is the only national organisation whose core purpose is to use evidence-based campaigning to bring about a truly sustainable transport system. I am hugely excited at the prospect of building on the solid foundation left by Paul Tuohy – working with the Campaign for Better Transport team and supporters to help bring about the transport system we need for a fairer, more productive and decarbonised world.”

A message from Paul Tuohy

“Campaign for Better Transport is quite an amazing charity. Throughout its 52-year history it has consistently made the case for the social, environmental and economic value of public transport, giving the public a voice to hold Government to account.

I feel more confident than ever for Campaign for Better Transport, especially with new Chief Executive Ben Plowden arriving with such great experience of both transport and charity work. He has just what we need to take the organisation onwards and upwards.

Whilst I step down from my role I shall be supporting, donating and cheering as Campaign for Better Transport fights the fight to make our communities healthier, greener and better connected. Such is the power of good public transport.”

– Paul Tuohy, retiring Chief Executive