Advanced transport systems designed to help cities become ‘smarter’ will be hosted in London as part of a new initiative, the Business Secretary has announced. Vince Cable said the capital is now designated as a so-called ‘Future Cities Catapult’ whereby innovation across a series of sectors is promoted alongside businesses for the benefit of the economy and its population.

Government agency the Technology Strategy Board will provide £50M of funding over five years. Private sector investment of £100M is being sought for the project.

The ‘Future Cities Catapult’ will look at ways in which services across areas such as transport, health, energy and public safety can be improved in London using new technology. Former chief scientific advisor to the government Sir David King will chair the Catapult board.

London’s new found status follows Glasgow’s appointment as a Future Cities ‘demonstrator’ city in January. It was given £24M to spend on developing city wide infrastructure that uses new technology. Glasgow is to spend some of its money on real time journey planning systems across the city, ways to identify traffic incidents faster through CCTV and use of a smartphone application so residents can report potholes.

Elsewhere in Europe, the Danish capital of Copenhagen is developing its status as a ‘Smarter City’ and is working to become the first carbon neutral capital in the world by 2025 through promoting greener vehicle technology. Details of Copenhagen’s ambitions will appear in the May issue of Transportation Professional.

Meanwhile the transport specialist Professor David Begg has described London’s transport system as ‘world class’ but said that more progress is needed to tackle rising traffic congestion, protect vulnerable road users and increase road capacity across the Thames in east London. His new report, commissioned by technology firm Siemens, can be read at http://www.siemens.co.uk/pool/news_press/news_archive/2013/world-class-tfl-report.pdf

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