It’s been a miserable week for commuters in the capital, and even though strikes on the London Underground are now winding down, the disruption is forecast to have cost the UK economy £230 million in lost productivity.
Whether or not the actual figure hits almost a quarter of a billion pounds, one thing is certain, the final amount will have been markedly reduced by an unlikely saviour from Silicon Valley: Neutron Holdings, Inc – or, Lime.
During the strikes, the number of Lime bike trips rocketed by 74%, with a 40% increase in trip duration and a 35% increase in distance covered. While by no means a perfect substitute for the Tube, it’s proof that choice and competition are an unalloyed good for consumers.
Whether the next disruption comes from strikes or something else, we know that e-bikes make transport systems more robust – antifragile, even. This also points towards the benefits of the UK becoming a testbed nation for more technologies from around the world. As we argued in The Way of the Future:
“[F]or the UK to become the most attractive place for innovative investments, it needs to do all it can to support domestic demand. This means making the political decisions that enable the adoption of new technologies.”
At this point, I’m acutely aware that readers based outside the M25 may only have so much sympathy for Londoners’ week of transport woe. Leodensians, (in)famously, go without a mass-transit system 365 days a year. Indeed, perhaps the biggest lesson for policymakers is therefore that the temporary hit to productivity from reduced agglomeration facing Londoners this week is anything but for those in our nation’s other cities. As Tom Forth wrote back in 2019, the lack of public transport effectively makes Birmingham an economically small city.
This doesn’t necessarily need to come at a huge cost to the public purse. Through an innovative programme of finance, funding and value capture, London’s businesses and future passenger revenues contributed around two-thirds of the cost of building the Elizabeth Line. The Government is already exploring a privately funded Birmingham-Manchester rail link. Full steam ahead, please!
For more food for thought, check out The Economist’s Mike Bird’s discussion of Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) rail and property model for building transport infrastructure by capturing land value.
(New)sletter
This week, Callum Anderson, the Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, launched a newsletter on LinkedIn. Commons & Capital will offer a regular look at the overlap of markets, policy and politics – through a centre-left Labour lens, which is exactly what we’ll be discussing with him and a room full of entrepreneurs and investors on Tuesday.
It got me thinking about other Members of Parliament who produce policy-rich newsletters. The Shadow Minister for Policy Renewal and Development, Neil O’Brien’s Substack, immediately springs to mind. But so too do Liam Byrne’s Fixing Inequality and Jeevun Sandher’s Winning Formulas.
If we zoom out to the Lords, at opposite ends of the economic spectrum, we also have Robert Skidelsky’s Substack and Matt Ridley’s Rational Optimist.
Who did I miss?
Good Graces
I’m delighted to share that Grace Almendras-Castillo – Founder and CEO of Gifftid – has joined us as an Adviser. She is building an AI intelligence and analytics platform that mobilises capital, data, and partnerships to scale underserved SMEs and impact-driven enterprises, which aligns perfectly with our mission.
Grace has been recognised as one of Canada’s Top 50 Women in STEM, a Springboard Enterprises Alum, an EY Entrepreneur of the Year nominee, and a fellow of JLabs and MaRS Discovery District in Toronto.
Grace praises the UK for its highly educated, intelligent community: “Overall, it fits the environment where I can participate in innovation, creation and make a contribution to society.”
Why don’t you join us as an Adviser? Drop me an email if you have any questions.
Message from our Partner
On 8 October, leaders from across finance, defence, technology, and government will gather in the City of London for the Fifth Anniversary of The City Quantum & AI Summit. With its rule of “plain English only”, the Summit is designed to cut through the noise and focus on what matters: the practical business outcomes driven by frontier technologies.
The event will bring together decision-makers shaping the future of finance, security, and technology adoption, to listen to discussions with CEOs from the likes of AWS, Palantir, and Multiverse Computing. Panels will be chaired by senior figures such as Sir Edward Braham (M&G and NED to the UK Treasury), Ian Stuart (CEO of HSBC UK), and General Sir Patrick Sanders (former Chief of the General Staff).
For entrepreneurs and the wider ecosystem, this is a chance to hear directly from board-level leaders on how Quantum and AI are already reshaping industries – and where opportunities lie.