I am a retired consultant civil engineer. My Fellowship topic was Techniques of Improving Urban Transport Systems and I spent three months in major cities in the USA and Canada visiting transport authorities, universities, operators and manufacturers. The main purpose was to see how US cities were managing the growth in car ownership and the decline in public transport. Some new systems were being built.

I had a lifelong interest in buses, trams and light rail (rapid transit in North America) and joined the new SELNEC Passenger Transport Executive to plan public transport in the Greater Manchester area. This culminated in the construction of the Metrolink tram system in 1992.

I then worked as a consulting engineer on bus, tramway, metro and railway projects in UK and overseas for another 25 years. After retiring from full-time work, I wrote three tramway histories, on Rochdale, Bury and Bolton, and a new book on tramway systems which were never built.

Throughout my professional career I have been involved with the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and the Institution of Civil Engineers (I am a Fellow of both) and was until 2020 a Director of TravelWatch NorthWest, assisting bus and rail user groups.