The Freewheeling Podcast

Andrew Browning is the founder and CEO of Schemeflow, an AI startup. Last week, we spoke about Combined Authorities; this week it’s AI.
He created his business just weeks before the launch of ChatGPT, so has been at the heart of the AI revolution, working both in London and Silicon Valley.
We discuss the willingness of the transport sector to adopt AI, what the AI tech bros are actually like from someone who knows them personally, and whether or not AI is going to create a jobs apocalypse. Spoiler on the last point: neither of us this think it will, net - but there’ll be big change.

Andrew Browning was the first Chief of Staff to the first Mayor of the West Midlands.
As a result, he had the unique experience of being at ground zero for the creation of the regional government for Britain’s second city.
He both witnessed and influenced the creation of West Midlands Combined Authority, and is here to share what went well, what didn’t and what lessons can be learned.
Given that many more Combined Authorities are likely to be created in the next few years, this is a very timely episode of The Freewheeling Podcast.

We measure fares, frequency and reliability, so why not fear?
Jocelyn Elleby is just two years into her career and already an expert in the safety of women and girls on public transport.
In this episode, she explains why so little of what women experience is ever reported, how AI could make CCTV useful before an incident instead of after it and the limits of relying on bystanders.
We also talk about male allies, what TfL taught me and why an argument is better than silence.
This is a topic that wasn’t be talked about when I started out in my career, and I’ve learned a lot in the last decade.
If, like me, you’re a man still learning how our service is experienced by half our customers, I highly recommend listening to this episode.

How much of the Bee Network's success is franchising, and how much is just money?
In today's Interchat with Vernon Everett, Transport Commissioner for Greater Manchester and chair of Transport for Wales, we get his answer, along with the numbers behind it: reliability up from 65% to over 80%, ridership up 30% in the first franchised area, and eight commuter rail lines joining the network from the end of 2026.
Vernon is candid that franchising is probably not for everybody. But if you want genuine integration across every mode, he argues, you cannot do it without control of the buses and the fare revenue.
This is the first Interchat recorded by Katie English, my Freewheeling associate.
Interchats are a series of short conversations recorded on the conference floor at Interchange 26 in Manchester.

What has to change inside government before anything changes on the street?
In today's Interchat with Ben Plowden, Chief Executive of Campaign for Better Transport, we discuss the machinery of government, why combined authorities should never be treated as a single category and the local transport authorities now spending 70% of their budgets on social care.
We also discuss my own despair about the climate crisis - and Ben's rather more useful answer to it.
Interchats are a series of short conversations recorded on the conference floor at Interchange 26 in Manchester.