Integrated Transport: Enabling connectivity and growth

Enabling economic growth through seamless travel

Improving transport integration creates £17bn additional economic output per year through increased productivity. The Department for Transport published their integrated transport strategy in April 2026 (Better Connected) to realise this potential impact with the vision, by 2045, to place people at the heart of how transport is designed, built and operated. Focusing on how transport systems should operate and empowering local leaders to deliver integrated local transport that meets the needs of their local community.

Achieving this vision requires a breakdown in silos and deployment of technological and accessible solutions to enable interoperability and create efficiencies. Innovate UK Business Connect is well placed to mobilise the disparate innovators to drive the required change. Hence, the workshop, held on 11 March 2026, intended to convene the experts to shape their vision for a UK integrated transport system and begin creating a new network.

Key outputs from the workshop

Linking modes is not necessarily the main challenge, rather ensuring the whole journey is easier to plan, access and complete. The building blocks already exist to enable this, but they are unevenly applied.

The report highlights several core friction points:

• Fragmented user experience: Small but persistent barriers in ticketing, real-time data, and connections degrade passenger trust.
• Uneven local capability: Local and combined authorities are central to delivery but often lack the resources, funding, and tools to scale infrastructure consistently.
• Data and standard silos: A lack of shared data standards and clear ownership prevents different transport modes from talking to each other.
• Accessibility gaps: True accessibility is a measure of system health; if the network lacks clarity and consistency for users with additional needs, it fails everyone.
• Measured innovation: Newer technologies like autonomous vehicles and drones have a role to play, but only where they solve a clear, practical problem.

What needs to happen next

• Industry and operators must move away from modal silos, focusing instead on whole-journey cooperation, consistent data sharing, and clearer governance.
• Government and policymakers need to empower local authorities with the long-term tools, capacity, and funding required to implement and maintain joined-up regional networks.
• Sustained coordination across organisations is vital to bridge the gap between high-level ambition and practical, reliable delivery on the ground.

By aligning standards and focusing on the end-to-end passenger experience, the UK can build a coherent transport network that works for people, every day.