Dear Transport Secretary, Here’s what I hope you’ll do...

LTT has invited leading transport experts to write open letters to new Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan

Local Transport Today asked its contributors and commentators what one thing they would advise new Transport Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan to bear in mind when making decisions in her new role.

Their varied, incisive and well-informed suggestions shed light on the big challenges facing Trevelyan as she takes charge at the Department for Transport.

The letter writers

Click on the experts' names to read their letters:

• Jonathan Bray, Director, Urban Transport Group
• Tom Cohen, Senior lecturer in transport at University of Westminster
• John Dales, Director, Urban Movement
• Jo Field, President, Women in Transport and founder and chief executive of JFG Communications
• Mark Frost, Director, Fern Consulting and Chair, Transport Planning Society
• Martina Juvara, Masterplanning director, URBAN Silence
• Rod King MBE, Founder and campaign director, 20’s Plenty for Us
• Esther Kurland, Director, Urban Design London
• David Leeder, Managing partner of economics and strategy advisor Transport Investment Ltd and previously a director of National Express and First Group
• Glenn Lyons, Mott MacDonald Professor of Future Mobility, University of the West of England, Bristol
• David Metz, Honorary professor, UCL Centre for Transport Studies
• Chris Todd, Transport campaigner and director, Transport Action Network
• Tom van Vuren, Regional director at Veitch Lister Consulting, visiting professor at the University of Leeds and policy director at the Transport Planning Society

About the Transport Secretary

Anne-Marie Trevelyan was appointed Secretary of State for Transport on 6 September 2022.

As Secretary of State she is responsible for:

• overall responsibility for the policies of the Department for Transport
• cabinet responsibility for the Northern Powerhouse
• oversight of departmental COVID-19 responsibilities.

Trevelyan served Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade from September 2021 to 6 September 2022.

Previously she was the UK International Champion on Adaptation and Resilience for the COP26 Presidency between November 2020 and September 2022.

She served as Minister for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from January 2021 to September 2021.

She was the Secretary of State for International Development from February to September 2020.

She was Minister of State for the Armed Forces from December 2019 to February 2020, and Minister for Defence Procurement from July 2019 to December 2019.