The presidential conference of the CIHT was, in the words of its new president, David Gillham, ‘an experiment’.
The experiment involved table discussions, allowing delegates to address questions raised by each conference speaker, and then feed back their opinions to the CIHT leadership.
It also involved one-quarter of the delegates being young professionals, personally invited by their president to give a fresh perspective, and new ideas to these discussions.
But, above all else, the event involved an experiment in considering how the industry needed to change.
If anyone had any doubts that a conference entitled Adapting to change would focus on the new challenges that transport professionals face in today’s world, Dr Mayer Hillman was on hand to remove them.
Dr Hillman, senior fellow emeritus of the Policy Studies Institute, started his speech by saying: ‘If any of you can sleep tonight, after what I have to say, I won’t have done my job.’
When the delegates laughed he insisted he was not joking. By the end of his speech it was clear he wasn’t. He presented to his audience without slides, without stories and without compromise. ‘Carbon-driven climate change is endangering life on earth,’ he said, and for anyone who missed the point, ‘we are heading for an apocalyptic catastrophe’.
Dr Hillman said we had to act now, and that ‘the transport industry had to immediately change its bigger, faster culture’.
The strategy with the only prospect of success required the imposition of carbon rationing. ‘We need a personal carbon allowance,’ Dr Hillman said, stating each individual’s carbon ration could then be traded on the open market.
While there was the occasional smirk in the audience, and a far more common sigh, the message grew stronger as the day went on.
Andrew Kluth, head of sustainability at Network Rail, took the stage to provide an illustrative touch that Dr Hillman could be said to have missed.
He told the story of a deer population left on an island by the American military which starved themselves to death through overpopulation, destroying all of their island’s vegetation.
‘Up until their last days, they probably thought there was nothing wrong’, Mr Kluth said.
He then discussed projects and studies which have shown ways to become more sustainable, including an Anglian Water programme that saved £10m over just a few years through a range of sustainability schemes.
As Martin Tugwell, deputy director (growth and infrastructure) at Oxfordshire CC, pointed out, following Dr Hillman, the former US president, Dwight Eisenhower once said ‘pessimism never won a war’.
If Dr Hillman is a soldier against climate change, Mr Kluth would probably be preferred as a general.
Professor Tony Travers of the LSE, warned in his speech that in the ‘perverse world’ of public services, local authorities would face ‘disproportionate cuts’. Mr Travers said groups such as councils which had proved adept at making sacrifices would be punished with further forced cuts.
Sir Brian Briscoe, chairman of High Speed Rail 2 (HS2), gave a clear outline of the HS2 project – its potential benefi ts and stumbling blocks.
He admitted there was ‘a worry’ over how local transport links would deal with the extra passengers HS2 would bring to Birmingham and London.
Carl Fergusson, a director of Colas, then made an apt speech highlighting the importance of innovation and being able to embrace change.
We had developed a risk adverse culture that prevented innovation and contrasted poorly with our Continental competitors, Mr Fergusson said, suggesting we develop an innovation charter such as in France. ‘An innovation charter could give us a forum that planners contractors and consultants can all buy into.
‘It’s a vehicle for innovation, so your man in the local authority would not be afraid to have new innovative roads, for instance, in his area,’ Mr Fergusson told Surveyor.
