The Freewheeling Podcast

Thomas Ableman
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The Freewheeling Podcast is all about moving forwards faster. Each week, I’ll bring you fresh voices, new ideas and unconventional thinking. With a bias towards transport and mobility, we also span entrepreneurship and politics.

  1. 6D AGO

    Stations with Johannah Randall

    Johannah Randall has spent a lifetime working with stations. She led the redevelopment of Kings Cross for GNER, has worked on station planning for both HS2 and the HS2 operator and advised on station design for entirely new railways like Saudi Arabia’s Etihad Rail. Yet she’s not happy with our direction of travel on stations, if you’ll pardon the pun. She joins me to describe her concerns.

    32 min

  2. FEB 4

    Organisational Change (through Ecology) with Tom Geraghty

    Tom Geraghty is now an expert in psychological safety at work, but he started out as an ecologist. A career focusing on how organisations actually work combined with his knowledge of ecosystems to make him realise something very important: organisations are ecosystems. So he started thinking about what it would mean to consider organisational change through the prism of stewardship of an ecosystem and it turned out to be rich soil, if you’ll pardon the pun. In today’s episode, you’ll learn what “substrate” means and why nurturing it is critical to landing innovation in your organisation.

    38 min

  3. JAN 28

    Competition Law and Economics in an Age of Partnership and Nationalisation with Andy Meaney

    The transport sector has long operated in an environment in which it was assumed that competition was the guarantor of service quality and low prices. Those assumptions are changing, with local authorities taking control of bus services and the rail network being nationalised. Does the competition law framework still work for this new environment? I get together with economist and Head of Transport at Oxera Andy Meaney to discuss this question.

    36 min

  4. JAN 21

    Disability and Transport with Sandra Witzel

    Sandra Witzel is comparatively unusual. Millions of people in Britain are disabled, while hundreds of thousands work in transport. But there isn’t as much overlap, especially at a senior level. So today’s discussion is all about Sandra’s perspectives on how transport needs to change to avoid disabling people, and about the sector’s willingness to make those changes. Sandra’s day job is at Skedgo, so we finish off with a chat about the status of Mobility-as-a-Service (Maas), now we’re past the peak of the hype cycle.

    37 min

  5. JAN 14

    Community Engagement with Jasmine Palardy

    How do we take the public with us? Actually, is that the right question? Surely, we should be asking what the public want? And what the public doesn’t yet know it wants. Our traditional models of consultation and engagement increasingly don’t work. They result in fearful officers bombarded with feedback from a hyper-engaged minority, while the typical resident is unaware that engagement is even taking place. Is there a better way? Yes! Jasmine Palardy works with local authorities to engage residents on highways schemes in a totally different way. Why shouldn’t a local authority highways consultation involve a chicken dinner?

    49 min

  6. JAN 7

    Nationwide Digital Ticketing with Tina Christensen

    This year, Denmark will replace all its public transport ticketing systems with a new fully pay-as-you-go digital app. Customers will get a transformationally better service; operators get a cost saving. What’s not to like? This is all being delivered by the “Rejsekort & Rejseplan”, a dedicated organisation devoted to transport ticketing and information. It is run by Tina Christensen, who tells me all about the culture change necessary to deliver this digital transformation. It’s an inspirational story for any country further behind on digital ticketing (which is almost all of them).

    39 min

  7. 12/17/2025

    2025 Year In Review

    This edition looks back at the themes that emerged from the 2025 episodes of The Freewheeling Podcast. We look back at inspirational city leaders who have transformed places for the benefit of their residents (and faced death threats for doing so), we revisit the entrepreneurs building great transport products to improve journeys and we discuss the big ideas that came out of last year’s conversations. I hope you enjoy this retrospective - there’s also a preview of the next season at the end. Thank you so much for listening in 2025 - and, above all, Merry Christmas!

    26 min

  8. 12/09/2025

    Being the Best Bus Company with Jane Cole

    Jane Cole is MD of the best bus company in Britain, at least according to the judges of the UK Bus Awards. In fact, that’s not all: she also leads the best tram company in Britain, according to the judges who awarded them Tram Operator of the Year. Today’s podcast is all about change, but it’s not primarily the sexy kind of technological change that we often think of when we think about change. It’s about culture, community and people - but it’s the stuff that makes the difference between success and failure in the transport sector. Jane describes the changes she’s made happen in Blackpool Transport and how empowerment, community focus and investment have transformed the transport service in one of the most deprived towns in Europe.

    44 min
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The Freewheeling Podcast is all about moving forwards faster. Each week, I’ll bring you fresh voices, new ideas and unconventional thinking. With a bias towards transport and mobility, we also span entrepreneurship and politics.

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