Speeches by Mayer.

“On repeated routes, I absolutely get that for the bus sector, which is working to a timetable. But coaches often do many different things, such as excursions, and they go to completely different places; one day they might be a bus replacement service. So it is not necessarily to a standardised timetable.”

“How do you expect that climate adaptation is going to change your decision making across the strategic road network particularly on how you prioritise investment and design of schemes?”

“Is there nothing different about the way you might, I don’t know, put back a road where something had gone a bit wrong?”

“I have two other questions; this is just going back to the question I asked before about whether you do things differently. When the A421 near Bedfordshire was flooded for quite a long time and you had to pump out swimming pools-worth of water, when you put everything back did you do it differently?”

“Very briefly on trees if I can, in your document it says that you are committed to supporting government tree planting targets. Do you just mean planting them or do you mean making sure they survive as well?”

“Your strategy talks about a shift towards renewals. To what extent does that mean that you have to change your ways of working, and do you have the right staff in place with the right skills for the future?”

“RIS3 says that National Highways will support industry to accelerate the rollout of EV charging infrastructure. Can you talk us through what that is going to look like in practice?”

“Thank you. In terms of economic growth, the strategy mentions the Oxford-Cambridge corridor and Brabazon, for example, where there is going to be a new town in the west, and that is important for economic growth. Do you see it as your role in a sense to be there to get everything in place to allow these new towns and a…”

“Are all of your renewals like for like?”

“What contributions do you think a renewals heavy programme can make for additional capacity?”

“Why are there no targets, even if it was a target with a range?”

“On a motorway at the moment there is a target, isn’t there, that every 30 minutes you should have a motorway service station, which up until now has meant that you can refuel your vehicle because one would expect that there would be petrol and diesel there? But as we have heard in other inquiries, while it has clearly …”

“Do you have any sense at all, with numbers attached to it, of what good might look like at the end of this period?”

“Finally, Transport Focus has said that there are currently no verified accessible charge points anywhere on England’s strategic road network. Why do you think that is, and how can it be addressed?”

“Are you forecasting that demand in any way?”

“The Government have recently published “Better Connected: A Strategy for Integrated Transport”. What do you see National Highways’ role as in terms of building a more integrated transport system?”

“Exactly, I do not think most people have the faintest idea what it is.”

“Chris, MaaS apps have come up in some of our previous evidence sessions. You were describing one for a distinct geographical area. Is there a danger that there is just going to be a plethora of random MaaS apps that do not remotely add up to a joined-up journey, because people cross borders?”

“Can we think about how people’s emotions and how they feel about doing this? I am interested in what features of a transport system most strongly affect people’s sense of simplicity and confidence in public transport options. For example, I have seen a study whereby, when you are waiting at the bus stop, your sense of …”

“Can I ask briefly about language? Maybe it is just me, but I understand the concept of a station and a bus stop, yet there seem to be a lot of new words that are used to describe precisely that. Does that confuse passengers other than me? Is there any sense that calling it something familiar builds confidence? It is ju…”