ITP History - Integrated Transport Planning

2023

We Are One (2023)

In 2020, ITP joined forces with Royal HaskoningDHV to create a sustainable, multi-disciplinary UK-based transport planning practice. After three years of patiently waiting to meet our colleagues in-person (thanks Covid!), in 2023 our entire team convened in Nottingham for the first official Advisory Group meeting. It was an opportunity for the team of ~100 transport planners, engineers and researchers to connect with colleagues who share our passion for researching, designing, and delivering more sustainable transport systems and outcomes.

2022

Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games

In the summer of 2022, Birmingham in the West Midlands played host to the Commonwealth Games. During a spectacular summer, ITP was part of Transport for West Midlands’ award-winning Travel Demand Management team supporting businesses and intermediaries across the West Midlands to plan, prepare and adapt their operations ready for the Games.

2020

ITP and Royal HaskoningDHV Join Forces

Despite being in the midst of a global pandemic, ITP successfully merged with Royal HaskoningDHV, an independently owned Dutch engineering company, to further our transport planning offer in the UK and around the world. By working together, we combine ITP’s strong track record in sustainable transport planning with Royal HaskoningDHV’s complementary expertise in active travel, smart mobility, development planning and engineering. The result is a team with the strengths and capabilities needed to address 21st century mobility challenges by helping to shape the sustainable transport networks of tomorrow.

2019

Future cities: where are we heading?

At the start of 2019, our team was joined in London by some of the brightest minds in land-use and transport planning, smart mobility and international development to debate future urban mobility trends, challenges and opportunities. We were delighted that HRH The Princess Royal was also able to join us, in her role as Patron of Transaid, at ITP's 20th anniversary Future Cities event.

2018

Small Business of the Year - it's official!

We were thrilled to be voted 'Small Business of the Year' at the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce's annual business awards. The judges commended our commitment to delivering sustainable transport projects for public and private sector clients in both the UK and overseas.

2018

Two decades of ITP!

To celebrate our landmark birthday we went on a study tour to Utrecht to explore why the city has become a beacon of best practice for integrating land-use and transport planning. We travelled by foot, bike, public transport and canal boat to experience first-hand how well-planned infrastructure has created communities where sustainable transport is the preferred mode of travel.

2017

Welcome aboard Harris Ethical: destination Bristol

We warmly welcomed all of the Harris Ethical team, who joined ITP to expand our knowledge on rail, freight, transport integration and logistics. We also opened our first office in Bristol to serve new and existing clients in South West England... Gurt Lush!

2017

Sustainable development planning goes to Mach 2.0

2017 was the year ITP lit the afterburners to accelerate our progress in the field of development planning. 'Top Gun' Dan Palmer joined ITP's Birmingham office and began the process of assembling a crack team of highway engineers and micro-simulation modellers capable of supporting some of the UK's largest public and private sector land-use developers with their transport-related planning needs... chocks away!

2016

Pembrokeshire 140 charity challenge

We raised over £5,000 for Transaid and the NSPCC through our Pembrokeshire140 challenge. The whole company got involved by walking, running or cycling 140 miles around Pembrokeshire in Wales to raise funds for charity. The event marked ITP's 18th birthday, with funds raised through generous contributions from friends, family members, and fellow transport planning consultancies.

2016

ITP joins forces with IBIS Transport Consultants

ITP acquired IBIS Transport Consultants, an urban passenger transport business that works in developing and transitional economies with a primary focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Having worked together on a range of projects in Africa and South East Asia since 2006, the merger significantly strengthened ITP's ability to provide a comprehensive service to international funding institutions and national governments looking to make step-change improvements in urban transport operations in developing countries. IBIS' managing director Ian Barrett joined ITP as a Technical Director.

2015

Jon Parker voted Smarter Travel Professional of the Year 2015

ITP's current Managing Director was voted the 2015 Smarter Travel Professional of the Year by his peers in the transport planning industry. The award recognises Jon's exemplary contribution to encouraging widespread uptake of walking, cycling and public transport by working with local authorities, property developers and employers across the UK over the last 20 years. many congratulations Jon!

2014

Back-to-back CIHT Sustainability Award wins

We were humbled to win the CIHT Sustainability Award in both 2013 and 2014. In 2014 the Lowestoft Local Links for Business project, delivered in association with Suffolk County Council, scooped the prize. This was followed in 2014 for our work, alongside AECOM and Leicestershire County Council, to deliver high impact Personal Travel Planning interventions in the county.

2013

All aboard for London!

We opened our first office in the Capital, headed-up by Jim Bradley who has since been joined by a capable team of experienced transport planners and researchers. The move enabled us to service our growing portfolio of projects with Transport for London, a number of London Boroughs, and private sector developers.

2013

15th birthday celebration in Munich

We celebrated ITP's 15th birthday with a study tour to Munich. Spending three days in the Bavarian capital gave us the chance to bring the whole company together for informal discussion about our future strategy. We also did some sightseeing, had a wacky-race from the airport (train won, by a mile), and double-checked the purity of the local Weissbier (Prost!).

2012

A project office in the Philippines

To manage the large number of initiatives we were delivering in the Philippines, we opened a project office in Cebu City to support a combination of visiting ITP and local Cebu BRT team members. Over 4 years we completed pre-feasibility and feasibility studies for Cebu City BRT - which is now being delivered, led innovative technology R&D projects with local taxi firms and Councils, and advised major landowners on transit oriented mall development.

2011

ITP wins OS Geovation funding to set up AccessAdvisr

Winning seedcorn investment funding enabled ITP to set up a website and app designed to provide a platform that enables people who experience mobility difficulties to share their experiences and reviews of accessing transport stops & stations, places of interest, shops and other destinations. The site continues to run at www.accessadvisr.net on a charitable basis led by our friend and AccessAdvisr co-founder Rob Trent.

2011

Highly commended at the MK business of the year awards 2011!

Lynsey, Jamie, and Robin got their glad rags on to represent ITP at the Milton Keynes & North Bucks Chamber of Commerce' business awards. We were highly commended in the Small Business of the Year category, marking our contribution to the city's continued growth and development.

2010

Training Ghana's transport planners

The Ghanaian Government asked us to design and deliver an intensive two week training course for a group of transport planners who staff the country's new Urban Passenger Transport Units. After covering transport planning and modelling, bus service planning and institutional models, economics, appraisal, market research and evaluation, stakeholder and community engagement, and marketing; feedback from our Ghanaian friends referred to a feeling of 'completing a Masters Degree in a fortnight'!

2009

"Fifteen go mad in Devon"

To raise money for charity the whole company took part in a group Coast-to-Coast cycle ride around Devon. Our fundraising efforts topped £5,000 and were generously supported by our clients Bourne Leisure - which more than made up for the saddle soreness caused by so many miles over the Quantock Hills!

2009

Colin Brader, Transport Planner of the Year

Colin was awarded the Transport Planning Society’s 2009 Transport Planner of the Year award at the Transport Practitioners Meeting on Tuesday. The prestigious award recognises Colin’s work in developing public transport schemes, and most notably the delivery of Africa’s first Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) line in Lagos, Nigeria. As a testament to this, the award was given jointly to Dr Dayo Mobereola Managing Director of Lagos Area Metropolitan Transit Authority (LAMATA).

2008

Lagos BRT launched

A landmark project for ITP, the 22km Lagos BRT line from Mile 12 to CMS was designed and constructed from our outline plans in a fairly amazing 18 months from initial conception. Within 2 weeks of opening the BRT line had transformed a busy corridor through the city and was carrying over 200,000 people each day.

2008

Birmingham office opens

With a strong West Midlands' contingent, and a growing workload in the region, ITP opened its third office - in the heart of Birmingham City Centre. We've since worked on exciting projects related to Merry Hill Shopping Centre, the Black Country Joint Core Strategy, and strategic programming for forthcoming HS2 works across the West Midlands region.

2008

Making Personal Travel Planning Work

Jon Parker and Lynsey Harris led this landmark research project on behalf of the Department for Transport. It seems hard to imagine now, but back in the early 2000's PTP was a hotly disputed technique for influencing people's travel behaviour. Our independent evaluation objectively evidenced the typical costs and benefits of PTP initiatives, paving the way for local authorities across the country to apply the technique in residential and workplace contexts.

2007

Jim Bradley and Neil Taylor join ITP

ITP made two 'key signings' in 2007, with Jim Bradley and Neil Taylor both joining the company. Between them they added expertise in smarter travel, stakeholder engagement, market & social research, inclusive mobility, and sustainable transport strategy. We didn't know it at the time, but we had just hired two future company Directors.

2006

Planning sustainable connectivity at Tamesis Point

ITP played a central role in ensuring walking, cycling, car sharing and public transport links were designed-in to the Tamesis Point development at Thamesmead in Greenwich. Jamie Wheway and Ian McGrane led our inputs, working alongside masterplanners and urban designers to help secure planning consent for the development. Our work paved the way for the Fastrack Bus Rapid Transit system to serve the new development.

2006

Mike Kendrick (1943-2006)

Mike was ITP's first Chairman, having joined us in 1998 from his post as Director of Planning and Transportation at Northamptonshire County Council. Sadly he left us all much too soon, following a brief battle with cancer. As a former president of both the Institution of Highways and Transportation and the County Surveyors’ Society, Mike was pivotal in opening up the transport planning profession and building relationships across the industry. The fact people at ITP regularly recall his natural leadership and infectious humour, and that his pearls of wisdom continue to be passed-on to aspiring transport planners, underline just how important Mike's early influence was to our company.

2005

"Eh up me duck"!

ITP's Nottingham office opened for business in the city's trendy Lace Market. Staffed initially by Jon Parker and Nick Ayland, who were quickly joined by Nic Greaves after a spell of international travelling, our Nottingham team has since grown considerably. Since 2005 we have supported a considerable number of local smarter travel, public transport, economic case and appraisal, and transport strategy projects. The team serves projects and clients across the East Midlands and the north of England.

2005

Nick Ayland joins ITP

Nick joined ITP as a Director in 2005. He was quickly busy working on road user charging studies across England, as part of the then government's Transport Innovation Fund programme. Nick's prior experiences as a Director and Managing Director of independent transport consultancies have greatly helped steer ITP's sustainable growth and continued expansion.

2004

Making Car Sharing and Car Clubs Work

ITPs independent research highlighting the potential impacts of car sharing and car club schemes in closed communities was published by the Department for Transport. This landmark study informed the rapid national growth of Car Clubs in UK towns and cities, giving local authorities the evidence and guidance they needed to play an effective role as delivery partners.

2003

Now we are five

The ITP team celebrated the company's fifth birthday with a study tour to Amsterdam and Stockholm. As well as talking about company strategy and future aspirations, we found time to check out the Zuidtangent busway, meet with Stockholm City Council to discuss car sharing and car clubs, and raise an Amstel or two to a successful first five years... Proost!

2001

Welcome to ITP, Jamie Wheway

Jamie joined ITP as a Director in 2001 having returned to the UK following an eight year spell in Hong Kong. While working on the Third Comprehensive Transport Study, helping to re-imagine what is now the Central area of Hong Kong, he first bumped into Colin Brader. The rest, you might say, is history. Jamie's experience in transport strategy, integrated land use and transport planning, regeneration and road user charging has since been integral to ITP's growth.

2000

Neil Kinnock gives Bus Rapid Transit the nod

The then EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock, seen here meeting ITP's Colin Brader, stopped by our information event to find out more about the potential for Bus Rapid Transit in the UK. ITP's trailblazing work in this area paved the way for guided busway systems in Cambridge, Gatwick, Luton and Dartford. It also started us on a journey towards helping emerging cities plan, design and develop effective BRT lines to deliver low-cost mass rapid transit for their citizens.

2000

Developing Safe Routes to Schools in Worcestershire

Kick-starting a long partnership with Worcestershire County Council, we established a role at the forefront of the smarter travel field by helping to develop travel plans and safe routes for children and parents to over 40 schools across the county. This trailblazing work won support from headteachers, the local education authority, and the then Minister for Education. The documented positive impact of the safe routes on levels of active travel among schoolchildren contributed to an evidence base that today underpins follow-up investment in walking and cycling links to education facilities across the UK.

1999

Cambridge Rapid Transit planning application

ITP was responsible for all of the planning, design and economic appraisal for the original planning application that precursed development of the Cambridge Guided Busway. Our work successfully made the case for a new fast bus link that would unlock residential and commercial development by providing absolute priority of movement for high quality bus vehicles through congested road junctions into the city centre. The busway now carries more than 3 million passengers each year.

1998

Jon Parker gets on board

ITP's future Managing Director joined the company soon after our inception and quickly became 'part of the furniture'. In no time at all he was promoted to the role of Director in recognition of his unrivalled technical ability and commitment to sustainable mobility. Jon took the reins from Colin as company MD in 2016, as ITP moved into its eighteenth year. Seen here enjoying Stockholm's Ice Bar on ITP's fifth birthday celebration, Jon's enthusiasm and passion for innovative transport planning and research are reflected in the company's values and our aim to improve the way the world moves.

1998

ITP - new kids on the block

ITP was formed in 1998 by Colin Brader, with Ian McGrane quickly joining him as the company's first member of staff. Starting life in Northampton, and working intensively on the Rapid Transit route proposals around the country, Colin and Ian's experiences stoked long-held passions for planning and designing really high quality public transport networks that meet local people's needs. Working with a growing number of national and local governments, international donor banks, private sector developers, and public transport operators, we are proud to still be delivering on the philosophy and objectives we drew up all those years ago.