ITP History

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!).

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.

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'!

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.