Lunch with Leon

In this week's episode, Leon talks to Norman Baker, former Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Transport. Leon and Norman discuss his current role as Director of External Affairs at Campaign for Better Transport and what the organisation is doing to make transport better, greener and fairer.

Ahead of ITT Hub 2023, the UK's most important transport technology event, Leon Daniels catches up with David Hart, Director at Momentum Transport Consultancy, one of the UK's leading transport and operational consultants. 

In this epsiode, Leon catches up with Sharon Kindleysides, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport (CILT), to discuss the latest news from the institute and the big, wide world of transport and logistics. 

In this episode, Leon's guest is another friend and expert from the world of transport, Richard Dilks, Chief Executive at CoMoUK. CoMoUK is the national organisation for shared transport, a charity for promoting its social, economic and environmental benefits. Shared transport means schemes such as car clubs and bike share where people can use a mode of transport without having to own it. Leon and...

Leon Daniels catches up with Simon Calder, The Independent's Travel Correspondent and news broadcaster, in this episode of Lunch with Leon. Simon discusses his daily travel podcast, the current workforce issues in the UK travel sector and the trends and news that is seeing travel change every week.

Happy New Year, listeners - Lunch with Leon is back with the first interview of 2023. To kick off January, Leon speaks to Roger Davies, a well-respected commentator on the global commercial transport industry and former senior bus manager, and discusses the 2023 budget and upcoming sector trends. Roger first spoke on the podcast nearly two years ago in episode 31, and is back by popular demand!

In the latest instalment of Lunch with Leon, Leon speaks to the Chief Executive of Living Streets, Steve Edwards, on what the charity has been up to and the progress it has made.  Since Steve has taken his new role, the charity has seen investment in its work in Scotland double; additional funding for its walk-to-school programme in England; and changes to the Highway Code to put pedestrians at th...

In this episode, Leon chats with Alex Warner, Managing Director of AJW Experiences Group Ltd, former MD of Tracsis Transport Consultancy. Leon and Alex discuss his 30-year career in the bus, rail and aviation industries and the launch of his new business, AJW Experiences. 

In this special edition episode, sponsored by One. Network , Leon heads to Los Angeles Conference Centre for the ITS America Global Congress to discuss the future of transport with key leaders in the space: Joanna Pinkerton President and CEO, Central Ohio Transit Authority Tim Haile Director, Contra Costa Transportation Authority and his Chair Chris Kelley Stephen Gota Executive Officer, Program m...

After the summer break, Lunch of Leon returns with a series of guests from the world of transport.  In this episode, Leon chats with Alex Hornby, CEO of Transdev Blazefield, which runs around 550 buses and employ 1,400 people at our bases in Blackburn, Burnley, Rochdale, Halifax, Huddersfield, Bradford, Harrogate, Keighley, Malton and York. Leon and Alex discuss the current state of the industry,...

In this week's Lunch with Leon, our host is back on the road - this time at ITT Hub in Farnborough, where he enjoyed lunch and a catch up with National Grid's Duncan Burt. Taking you backstage at one of the industry's biggest national events, Leon and Duncan talk all about his role as Chief Sustainability Officer - looking at how to support the wider move to electric vehicles across large fleets,...

Leon Daniels OBE has lunch with Victoria Whitehead (Managing Director, Head of Infrastructure and Transport at Lloyds Bank ) and Joy Newton (Associate Director of Sustainability and ESG Finance at Lloyds Bank). As the government is urging us towards net zero, and transport is currently such a huge emissions contributor, what’s the role of technology and what’s the bank going to do about it? asks L...

Rupert Clubb from Transport for the South East (TfSE) chats with Leon Daniels OBE ahead of the region’s sub-national transport body’s appearance at ITT Hub on 11-12 May. There, TfSE will launch its freight strategy, reveals Rupert: “Using ITT Hub as a springboard is really exciting. Then later in the summer we will launch a consultation on our strategic investment plan.” They mull over the percept...

Will we run out of electricity? That’s the most-often asked question of Paul Jewell, when people discover that he’s System Development Manager at Western Power Distribution (WPD) , covering the Midlands, South West and South Wales. His answer is simple: No, we won’t. But getting it to the right places in the right quantity, involves planning and forethought. As a Distribution Network Operator (DNO...

We’ve got a pretty good idea about what the post-pandemic recovery for public transport looks like in Britain, but what about the rest of the world?  Leon Daniels OBE travels to the MENA Transport Congress and Exhibition (MTCE) at the Dubai World Trade Centre to catch up with transport leaders from around the world. He discovers that the answer varies between a 25-100% recovery, on different conti...

In the 59th episode of Lunch with Leon, Leon takes us to the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund awards ceremony - founded in the name of Rees Jeffreys who was both a great cyclist and an integral part of the Road Improvements Council. The Road Fund was established by Jeffreys (1871 – 1954), and now the charity offers financial support to education and project support - and to mark the 150 years since Jeffrey...

In this episode of Lunch with Leon, our host talks all things Net Zero with Glenn Bemment, who is the Head of Sustainability for SMEs and Mid Corporates businesses at Lloyds Bank. A key focus for Glenn is how Lloyds can help their clients transition to the low carbon future we need. Throughout the episode, the discussion revolves around the latest research Lloyds commissioned across more than 1,00...

In this week’s Lunch with Leon, Leon heads to the Northeast of England to visit Beamish - and meet with various members of the museum team.   To start off, Leon learns about the development of the museum since its founding in 1970 - inspired by open air museums around the world which spotlight how life used to be and how life has changed as a result of technology and innovation. Beamish Museum is...

This week's episode sees Leon sitting down for lunch in the North East of England, with Martijn Gilbert from Go North East . During this episode, the two discuss investment in the brand-new local bus depot, the rollout of new express buses across key routes in the North East, and the rise in electric buses. How has the negative perception of public transport during Covid-19 impacted the bus indust...

This week sees Leon sitting down for lunch with Christian Wolmar - a noted railway historian who has appeared on TV, Radio, and is a celebrated author to name just a handful of his accolades and achievements. In this episode, Leon talks to Christian about his latest book release on Crossrail and its inner operational workings - introducing the motivation behind the book and just some of the projec...

In this week’s episode of Lunch with Leon, Leon is on a whirlwind trip to Dublin to meet with the Managing Director of Aircoach . Dervla McKay was appointed MD of the company following a bright career which started back in 2005 when McKay joined First Group as a graduate trainee. Since then, her experiences have seen her working across public transport usage in England and Ireland, with her focus...

In this week’s episode of Lunch with Leon, our host sits down with Roger French. Roger may be retired from the day-to-day world of public transport but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still in touch with his industry roots - sharing his thoughts on the pending funding and service changes in the public vehicle sector, the rise of low-emission buses, and the changing of peak transport requirements as a r...

In this first episode of 2022, host Leon sits down with a handful of special guests as he makes his way around ITS America. Leon’s first conversation is with Chief Executive Officer of one.network , James Harris, who shares his experience of launching a data company in the USA market and provides insight into his time at the ITS America show. The second guest on Lunch with Leon is the President an...

In this Lunch with Leon - which actually started life as a dinner in Scotland during COP26 - host Leon Daniels OBE chats to Ian Constance, who is the CEO of the Advanced Propulsion Centre UK (and if you don’t know what that is, then it’s a good thing you’ve found your way to this episode!) Picking up from where their conversation over dinner left off, this episode provides insight into the reality...

Fresh from attending COP26, Leon Daniels OBE has lunch with Ben Plowden, formerly of Transport for London, who is one of the country’s leading minds on urban planning, the environment and ensuring a sustainable lifestyle. They chat about Independence Day and State of Fear , and why the climate emergency doesn’t feel like an emergency, in the way that Covid did last year. And, why COP26 was a parti...