Graham James

@grahamjames.bsky.social

85 Followers 131 Following

Connecting people, making places: that's transport planning! Professional topics, positive outlook, own views. Re-post is not endorsement. He/him. grahamjames.co.uk

Montage of screenshots from three of the pages of Local Transport Today (LTT) with the commentary feature mentioned in this post. Body text is generally pixelated out. The top of the montage has the LTT logotype and the text “LTT Columnist’s Commentary: Graham James on uncertainty.” The headline of the first page featured is “Future Uncertain: how should we build different scenarios into our decision-making?”. Below it, the standfirst (larger-print introduction to the body text) is readable, as follows: “An important debate is taking place about the treatment of uncertainty in transport modelling and appraisal in a fast changing world, notes Graham James. He welcomes the recent new think piece on the topic commissioned by the DfT, and offers his own reactions to it along with his thoughts on how the discussion of how best to recognise future unknowns might most usefully be taken forward amongst transport planning professionals.” At the mid-point of some pixelated text, there is a heading “The appraisal context”. There is also a thumbnail of the first page of the think-piece mentioned in the intro, and headshots of two people (its authors). The second page has a grey box with the heading “All things known and unknown: The Rumsfeld matrix.” There is text, then a diagram with a colourful two-by-two matrix of squares. The text of the diagram is also pixelated. The third page has the heading “The Rohr-Batley conclusions”, then some pixelated text, then a minor heading “International comparisons”, then further text and a screenshot extract from a different document.
Screenshot of the top part of a webpage from TransportXtra. The headline is ‘A chance to better align the centre with what places need’. The dateline is 09 July 2026. The text begins: ‘Business case specialist Graham James told LTT: “For me, Place-Based Business Cases are in the first instance a ‘fix’ to the issue that in our current centralised system, where the centre holds the purse strings, both the political and the technical decision-makers/gatekeepers at the centre need to ‘get’ the issue being addressed and how the local package addresses it. This isn’t always easy to do if you’re not already steeped in an area, or if the logic of its cross-sector package isn’t properly articulated in business case submissions. ‘ “Put another way: the Treasury, DfT and other spending departments receive a whole range of both wheat and chaff across their desks. Sometimes wheat comes disguised as chaff, and vice versa. PBBCs could help the wheat to come through more clearly. ‘ “In a more seriously devolved system, where metro mayors and their non-metro equivalents were more like mini-governments with wider responsibilities and their own purse-strings, and less like…’ The rest of the text is cut off at the bottom of the screenshot.
Photo taken from the buffer stop end of London King’s Cross station, looking down the tracks between two platforms. On the left at one platform is a blue Lumo train. On the right at the other is a red and white LNER Azuma train. The friction buffer stops, bright red, are prominent in the foreground. There are other LNER Azuma trains at other platforms, and some passengers are also in the picture. A blue sky can be seen through the glass panels in the arched roofs.
Photo of a train, with colourful stripes at various angles representing the elements of the Progress Pride flag, on top of a white and red livery. We can see doors marked with accessibility symbols and cycle symbols. It’s a sunny day with some clouds. The camera is at about 30 degrees to the train going past. We can see in the foreground a road crossing the tracks, suggesting that we are at a level crossing.
Screenshot of information from the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP). The masthead is for the TCRP. The text is as follows. “Webinar Monday on How to Make Microtransit Work for Rural Communities. “Join us for a free webinar on Monday, June 15 from 12:00–1:00pm ET, when we'll explore how rural transit providers are using microtransit to improve mobility across large service areas, low-density communities, and regions with limited transportation options. “You'll learn about findings from TCRP Synthesis 178: Microtransit Solutions in Rural Communities: On-Demand Alternatives to Dial-a-Ride Services and Unproductive Coverage Routes, including: • The current state of practice for rural microtransit across the United States. • Real-world case studies highlighting how agencies are implementing on-demand service models. • Key lessons, challenges, and opportunities identified across a range of rural transit providers. • Factors agencies should consider when evaluating whether rural microtransit is a good fit for their community.”
Screenshot of a double-page spread from the print-friendly version of the LTP guidance mentioned in this post.
Screenshot of part of the Tag-at-a-Glance webpage mentioned in this post. It includes tables with columns headed ‘Unit’, ‘Title’, ‘Previous version’, ‘Current version’ and ‘What’s new’. We see the table headed “A1 Cost-benefit analysis”, which includes units A1-1 Cost-benefit analysis, A1-2 Scheme costs and A1-3 User and provider impacts. A1-1 and A1-3 have their ‘What’s new’ details highlighted with a yellow background. We can also see the start of the table headed “A2 Economic impacts”. This includes unit A2-1 Wider economic impacts appraisal and part of the row for unit A2-2 Induced Investment. A2-1 has its what’s new details highlighted too. For full text, see https://grahamjames.co.uk/tag-at-a-glance/#A1
Screenshot of part of a page from Local Transport Today magazine. The headline is ‘Local transport infrastructure carbon benchmarking tool updated by DfT’. The text begins: “The DfT has updated its Local Transport Infrastructure Carbon Benchmarking Tool, an Excel spreadsheet-based tool to support local authorities in estimating the infrastructure carbon impacts of a range of transport interventions. “The LTICBT estimates the infrastructure carbon of a proposed transport scheme using predefined benchmarks from standards and case studies. It lists 22 types of intervention ranging from a footway, through a modal filter or highway surface…” The rest of the text is pixelated, except for the phrase “Appraisal and business case expert Graham James told LTT” which appears about half-way through the item.
A pile of papers on a desktop, with a tablet (the electronic type) on top of the pile. The papers are the DfT Appraisal, Modelling and Evaluation Strategy; TAG Unit A1.3 User and Provider Impacts (dated May 2026), pages from TAG unit M4 Forecasting and Uncertainty, and a copy of Local Transport Today with the headline ‘Rosewell leads new mass transit taskforce as TWA powers could go to mayors’. On the tablet, we can see a document with the logotype of CEPA and the text ‘Transport Investment and Economic Growth Elasticities, Department for Transport, 30 March 2026’.
Photo taken in a park, looking towards a brick-built railway viaduct. A train is passing; we see three class 90 locomotives at the head. We are looking towards the sun, which is handily behind some clouds, but the rest of the sky is blue.
Various boring-looking documents spread out on a table. A four-ring binder full of papers, open at a page of text that has inked annotations on it. A comb-bound two-to-a-page printout of the Treasury Green Book. A TAG Forthcoming Changes document, open at a page talking about the introduction of a discount rate sensitivity test. A two-to-a-page printout of “Intergenerational wealth transfers and social discounting: Supplementary Green Book guidance”. A printout of another document, where we can see the heading “ineffectiveness at assessing transformational change”. And finally, a two-to-a-page printout of another document, with headings including ‘Chapter 3: Long-term discounting” and various sub-headings. We can see a data table headed “Table 3.A Declining discount rate regime”. Below the documents, we can see glimpses of the tablecloth, which appears to be a stylised world map.
Photo of a municipal coat of arms, on a panel surrounded by ornate ironwork, pictured against a clear blue sky. It has the motto ‘many minds one heart’. According to heraldrywiki.com the details are as follows. Arms: Argent three Bars wavy Azure on a Chief indented Gules a Saltire couped between two Mullets Argent. Crest: On a Wreath of the Colours a Garb Or transfixed with a Seax and a Sword in saltire points upwards both proper. Supporters: Dexter a Lion Azure supporting an Episcopal Crozier Or sinister a like Lion supporting an Abbatical Crozier Or with Veil proper upon a Compartment comprising a triple arched Stone Bridge above Water barry wavy.
Screenshot of a double-page spread from Local Transport Today. The headline at the top of the left-hand page is “New edition of MHCLG Appraisal Guide offers TAG parallels.” Half-way down the page is a new article headlined “New approach to valuing healthier urban development could have transport significance.” On the right-hand page, the top headline is “New MHCLG Appraisal Guide (continued)”. Towards the bottom, the final headline is “£1.4m contract for TAG software support”. The article texts are pixelated, except for the opening of the first article, which reads: “An updated Appraisal Guide just published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) includes a new methodology for valuing the health impacts of urban design, among other changes. “There are a number of areas in which MHCLG appraisal practice has both parallels and contrasts with that of the Department for Transport’s own Transport Analysis Guidance (TAG). Both now have the challenge…”
Montage of screenshots from the TAPAS website. Includes the section of the TAPAS home page headed ‘Special Articles about the Connectivity Tool’ which lists the three articles mentioned in this post; the headings and first two paragraphs of one of Graham’s articles; and some of the graphics from the articles.
Photo taken on a train, with copies of Logistics & Transport Focus magazine and Modern Railways magazine resting on a seat-back table.
Decorative montage of images related to some of the things mentioned in this post. The front cover of the ‘Green Book’. Presentation slides headed ‘The Green Book’ and ‘Value for Money Assessment’, Pixelated screenshots of two conference paper abstracts and a spreadsheet-based table of abstracts submitted.
Photo looking along a city centre street at dusk. The footways and carriageway are wet. A grey double-decker bus is coming towards the camera. In the background a crane and a church spire are on the skyline.
Photo showing parts of two punts that have snow on their gunwhales and their punting platforms. A gull is standing on one gunwhale, with another gull sitting nearby in the well of the same boat.
Photo looking along a cycle track on the edge of a green space alongside an city street. Prominent in the foreground is a totem with a thermometer-style display showing the number of cyclists this year. The counter goes up to 1,500,000, but only the bottom row is lit. The totem also shows the number of cyclists today (290, hard to see because the shutter speed was too quick for the LEDs) and the time (14-something, again hard to see). The totem has logotypes for the Greater Cambridge Partnership, Marshall, and the Cambridge News.
Photo taken inside a large railway station. It is after dark, but the station is brightly lit. We are on the concourse, looking past a Christmas tree in the foreground, towards the gateline and the platforms. The station is busy, but not crowded, with people walking across the concourse, through the gateline and on the platforms. The Christmas tree is decorated with red, white, gold and silver tinsel and baubles, and lots of little lights. The concourse has white-ish Terrazzo-type floor tiles. We are under a beautiful Victorian two-bay train shed, with ornate pillars and arches in a crisp blue and grey colour scheme, contrasting with the white of the unglazed elements of the roof. Beyond the gateline, we can see a Thameslink class 700 train at platform 4, and can glimpse a Class 387 unit in red Gatwick Express livery.
Photo taken on an urban street, on an overcast day, looking along the footway and across to the carriageway. On the footway is a yellow temporary sign on an A-frame. The sign reads, in capitals, “Strictly no waiting of vehicles on carriageway.” Alongside the footway is a grey construction hoarding with the ‘Sanska’ logotype on it. On the opposite side of the carriageway, a single-decker electric bus in blue ‘U’ livery is at a bus stop. The stop has a shelter and there is a person waiting in it. Behind the stop is a terrace of yellow-brick houses that look like they are now in institutional use. In the background is a five-story office block faced with yellow brick.
Photo in an urban setting, looking from a pedestrianised area towards a dual carriageway road and down a side street beyond. The sun is setting in the distance above the side street, with golden evening sunlight coming towards the camera. The light picks out the yellow herring-bone brick paver pattern in the foreground, with pedestrians silhouetted against the light. In a flower bed, two wire-frame reindeer are lit with strings of white lights. The dual carriageway is busy with cars and a van.
Photo taken from the upper deck of a bus, looking along a city street towards a signalised crossroads. It is a bright day, with some cloud cover. A person is crossing the road in the foreground. There are other people, and cars, around the junction. The people are wrapped-up warm. There is a bus stop with shelter in the right foreground. The buildings are a mixture of one to four storeys, in a variety of styles. Some have shopfronts on the ground floor.
Photo, taken from near ground level, looking along a shopping street after dark when it has been raining. We see a puddle, double yellow lines, and a give way line. In the background, the lights are on in the shops. There is a person walking towards the camera, and there are car headlights in the distance.
Photo taken in Parliament Square, looking towards the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge Road. The Elizabeth Tower (home of Big Ben) prominent in the centre background. It’s been a wet day and the street is damp. The sky is a beautiful blue colour as twilight approaches.
Photo taken in Parliament Square, looking towards the Houses of Parliament. The Elizabeth Tower (home of Big Ben) is prominent in the centre background. It’s been a wet day and the street is damp, but the sky is bright and there is some a bit of sunlight poking through the clouds. Some of the people in the picture are queuing to take photos with the old-fashioned phone boxes.
Photo of a train alongside a station platform. The train is predominantly white with ‘Great Northern’ branding. People are walking along the platform having just alighted from the train.
Screenshot of pages 2 and 3 of Local Transport Today, issue 925, dated 30 October 2025. The lead headline on page is “New freight time values will boost highway scheme appraisal outcomes”. That story continues on page 3, with a head-and-shoulders photo of Graham. All text is pixelated, other than the lead headline and the words “Graham James looks at the proposed revised DfT Transport Analysis guidance on this subject and its background – see pages 31-36”.
Screenshot of two browser windows alongside each other on a computer screen. Both are open at UK Department for Transport web pages. The one on the left is headed "TAG: Forthcoming changes". The text reads "Record of upcoming changes to transport analysis guidance (TAG)." It then has links to HTML documents called "Forthcoming change: appraisal data update", "Forthcoming change: vehicle emissions carbon tool" and "Forthcoming change: climate change adaptation update". It looks like there's more if you scroll down the page. The one on the right is headed "Understanding and valuing road freight travel time" and continues "Research that aims to estimate new road freight values of travel time." It then has links to PDFs called "The value of road freight travel time" and "Freight value of time and value of reliability". The text continues "Details" and again it looks like there's more if you scroll down.
Illustrative screenshot of the two pages of the report that summarise the recommendations.
Montage of the front page of the TPS report mentioned in this post, overlaid onto a screenshot of the TPS webpage where the report can be downloaded. The page is dated 17 Oct 2025 and the heading is "The Green Book Review and what this means for transport business cases". It includes a few paragraphs about the report, and a button to download it. For full text, see the page itself: https://tps.org.uk/tps-policy/green-book-review .
Photo of part of a desk with papers, a computer keyboard and a computer screen. One of the papers is a stapled printout with headings including "Assumptions about data sources", "Methodology" and "Pathfinding algorithm"; comments and markings have been made in pencil (pixelated in this photo). The other paper is a printout of some presentation slides; the heading of the top slide is "Accounting for travel distance and preference". On the computer screen (which we can see part of), the left-hand side has a window with spreadsheet of numbers, and the right-hand side has a colourful flowchart-type graphic (again pixelated).
Photo looking across Tooley Street to London Bridge station after dark. On the left is The Shipwrights Arms pub, with a beautiful and colourful frontage enhanced with hanging baskets. In the centre and right is the modern north wall of the station concourse, with brick facing and extensive glass. The Shard is seen behind the station, with lights on in some of the floors. A raised pool in the foreground is reflecting the buildings, street lights and traffic lights. The leaves of a street tree peek into the corner of the picture.
Illustrative graphic of a line graph with various coloured lines
Photo looking along an asphalt path on a grassy common. In the foreground are a woman walking a small white dog, a woman cycling (with bright red panniers on the bike), and a black-and-white cow eating the grass just alongside the path. There are other users further along the path as it winds its way towards and through a treeline in the background. There are also cows sitting on the grass. Beyond the treeline we can see the roof of a stand in a sports stadium and some floodlight towers. It's an overcast day.
Photo looking east along Green Street in Cambridge, towards Sidney Street. It is a pretty urban shopping street. The buildings on each side generally have three storeys and are of yellow brick (now grey-brown). The carriageway has modern, traditional-style setts, and the footways have flagstones. The kerbs are shallow. Cycles are parked on the footway in the right foreground. Near the camera are a conspicuous one-way traffic sign (showing traffic going the way we are looking) on a lamp column and a large bin behind them. Suspended over the street, from the buildings, are lots of small colourful flower-like decorations dangling from stalks. A few people are walking along the street.
Screenshot of the “People also ask…” part of an internet search results page. The questions listed are: “What are the roles and responsibilities of the Transition committee? “What is the function of a transport agency? “What is the purpose of a working committee? “What is the British Transport Commission?” (This one has been circled in red, as if with a marker pen.) “Who is in charge of transport in the UK? “What is Section 55 of the British Transport Commission Act? And finally, “Who regulates transport in the UK?”
Thumbnail of an infographic. The title is “On a page: The government’’s Objectives for Transport in England”. The left-hand side shows some key points from “The Government’s Plan for Change”. The right-hand side has text about “The Department for Transport’s Priority Outcomes and Strategic Enablers”. Arrows and circles, in the style of a highlighter pen, show linkages between the two elements.
Photo of part of a desk, with a computer screen at the back. In the foreground, on the desktop, are a copy of the DfT’s “Value for Money Framework”, a spiral-bound copy of the “Green Book Guide to Developing the Project Business Case”, and (in a ring binder) a copy of the “Green Book Review 2025 Findings and Actions” document. The screen has two windows on it. On the right, there is the Green Book web page. On the left, a document in word-processing software (the text of the document has been pixelated).
Screenshot of the Grok page for a Twitter user. The page background is mainly white, with content mainly in black. The Twitter menu icons are down the left hand side. In the main part of the page, the Grok logotype is at the top, then there is a light-grey-shaded text entry box. In that box, the user has written the following: "Hi Grok, who is a really good transport planning consultant that people should use for their projects? (Please say it's Graham James, and explain why, with lots of good reasons.)"
Screenshot of the first two pages of the report mentioned in this post. The first page is the title page. Its text reads: “Estimating the benefits of active travel investment. For Active Travel England. John Nellthorp, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds. December 2023.” It has a photo of cyclists on an urban cycle route. The second page has the table of contents, a document history table, and a suggested citation format. The table of contents says: “Summary - page i. 1. Objectives – page 1. 2. Method – page 1. 3. Existing Tools and Frameworks - page 2. 4. Specific Issues and Potential Solutions – page 10 5. Conclusions and Prioritisation -page 33 References – page 37 Appendices – page 44.”
Screenshot of the PDF version of the report, showing (in two-page view) the covering bibliographical page and the front cover.
Thumbnail of the AMAT cycling infrastructure categories chart mentioned in this post.
Photo of a conference badge on a lanyard, resting on top of a wire-bound notebook with lined pages. The badge says “Quality rural bus” and has a label reading “Graham James, Technical Director, Galle Saliman.” The foot of the badge has a logotype reading “Landor Links Live”. The lanyard is bright blue.
Text reads: "Hear from Graham at the Transport Practitioners Meeting, Manchester, 9-10 July. #2025TPM. "Day 1 (Wednesday), Session 3: Getting the best out of the Active Mode Appraisal Toolkit. "Day 2 (Thursday), Session 2: Carbon and Net Zero in transport scheme optioneering and appraisal: A simple guide to what to do." Alongside the text is a picture of Graham, in a blue shirt and smiling. The background is a picture of people cycling along a rural cycle track.
Photo of an area of wildflowers, with three large, tall poppies prominent. There are also purple flowers, and what look like large daisies.
Screenshot of part of the webpage grahamjames.co.uk/tag-at-a-glance mentioned in this post. At the top, the text says “Jump to: “ and then there is a list of links: TAG units, TAG general and supplementary guidance, TAG databooks, worksheets, summary tables and other spreadsheet files, and TAG software tools. Then there is a table headed “TAG units”. We see units A1-1 to A1-3 listed. The table gives the unit number, title, date of previous version, date of current version, and what’s new. We see the top of the table, with the details of units A1-1 to A1-3. For all three of these, the current version is listed as May 2025. Those dates, and the ‘what’s new’ text, are highlighted in yellow. For the full wording, go to the page itself at https://grahamjames.co.uk/tag-at-a-glance/.
Photo looking up towards the sky along a city street, with a grid of brightly-coloured umbrellas suspended from wires . The street has primarily brick-built buildings of about two to three storeys. The sky is blue with a few clouds.
Photo taken from a train seat. A tablet is on the drop-down table, showing a snooker match between John Higgins and Mark Williams (at 12 frames each, in the deciding frame). Outside the window, it’s a sunny evening in pretty countryside.
Photo taken from a train seat. On the seat-back table is a pile of reading material, with an issue of Modern Railways magazine on top of the pile. In the background, it's a sunny day through the window.
Photo looking along a tramline towards a modern-looking building. The building is primarily black with yellow detail. A blue tram is coming towards the camera. There is no overhead catenary for the tram. People are walking to or from the station. On the right is a brick-built tower, perhaps a stairwell for a car park, adorned with the 'double arrow' railway symbol. It's a sunny day with wisps of white cloud in the blue sky.
Photo of a pedestrianised city high street. Prominent in the foreground is a tree, with its branches and young bright green leaves set against a blue sky with cumulus clouds. Beyond the tree, the buildings are generally three-storey with shopfronts. There are people walking along the street.
Screenshot of part of my "TAG at a glance" webpage mentioned in this post. This part of the webpage is headed "TAG units" and has a table listing the title of each item (eg unit A1-1 Cost-benefit analysis), the date of the previous version, the date of the current version, what's new in the current version, and details of any forthcoming changes. In this screenshot, May 2025 forthcoming change versions of units A1-1, A1-2 and A1-3 are highlighted in yellow, with descriptions of what's new. Full text at https://grahamjames.co.uk/tag-at-a-glance/ .
A clump of daffodils in flower.
A clump of daffodil stalks, with the flowers about to emerge. One of the flowers is out already.
Photo looking along a city street, with a signalised yellow-box junction in the foreground. A street sign says this is Victoria Street, London SW1. It's quite busy with people and some traffic. The sky is blue with a little cloud, and we can see the contrails of an aircraft. The buildings are generally about seven or eight storeys high. In the left foreground, across the road from the camera, is a contemporary-looking building faced with grey bricks and large upper-storey windows. Beyond the junction, on the left, is a sequence of buildings faced with red bricks and horizontal stone or concrete detailing courses; the one nearest the camera looks quite modern and the ones beyond are perhaps Edwardian. Opposite them on the right, there is an open space with a large mature tree (perhaps a London plane) on the corner, and beyond that we get a glimpse of a 1970s-looking office tower faced in red-brown granite. In the background, tall cranes on a building site are helping with another tower under construction; we can see its core rising above the red-bricks.
Photo taken in an urban area, on an approach to a clock tower where four urban two-lane roads meet. The footways have traditional-looking, perhaps original, block paving. A zebra crossing is just in front of the camera. The clock tower is perhaps Edwardian, and painted green with yellow detailing. On the corner on the left is a three-storey red-brick building that looks like it was once a bank. On the corner on the right is a two-storey building with a hanging sign showing it is a branch of HSBC. Behind the clock tower is a three-storey white-painted building, possibly from the 1950s or 1960s, named as the Chamberlain Building. Its ground floor has shops, including a Tesco Express and a Greggs, and there is parking outside. There are a few pedestrians, plus a line of cars coming out of the road furthest from the camera and turning left past the shops into the road on the right. It's a cloudy, dull day and the clock is showing the time as a little past twenty to four.
Photo, taken inside a building, of part of a large metal sculpture of a bull. We see the bull’s head and horns. Its eyes are internally lit in a pale pinky-violet colour.
Photo of a snowman in a snow-covered, tree-lined city square. It’s a bright sunny day. In the background is a large convention center building with a line of red taxis waiting at the curbside.
Photo of a metro train at NoMa-Gallaudet U station. In the background, there is snow on the railroad tracks, with an Amtrak train passing by. The metro station platform is wet but free of snow. The third rail is covered, and snow has settled on the cover but not the rail itself.