Simon has been involved in the Greater Manchester transport policy system since 1999. Over that time, he has been central to the case for ever greater devolution and the renewal of urban public transport outside London.
Through the early 2000s, Simon’s work focussed on the investment case for Metrolink expansion and wider investment in contemporary public transport facilities. Having progressed the ultimately unsuccessful case for road pricing in Greater Manchester, this work culminated in the 2009 deal with Government, which created the Greater Manchester Transport Fund. During the 2010s, this ground-breaking funding mechanism supported around £2 billion investment, which has trebled the size of the Metrolink system and established a new generation of transport interchanges in town centres across the city region.
In more recent years, his work has focussed on progressing the case for integrated public transport through ever-greater devolution and in establishing active travel as a genuine component of the city region network. Greater Manchester is currently establishing a system of bus franchises which, when complete in 2025, will form the basis for the Bee Network: the most developed integrated transport system outside London.
At the start of June, Simon will move to become the new Executive Director for Transport at West Yorkshire Combined Authority.