Core Themes

Content is king

Interchange is all about creating a seamless, integrated, decarbonised, and resilient multi-modal transport system that works for people, the economy, and the planet.

We break down silos, champion systems thinking, and focus on action—how things get done, not just what gets done.

Core themes

In 2026, we’re spotlighting transformative change across city regions, with headline speakers including metro mayors, business leaders, government ministers, and leading academics.

Our multistream conference now features the new Rethinking stream alongside our four pillars: Places, Energy, Environment, and Digital & Data.

Plus, Interchange hosts the ITS UK annual conference over two days, the ever-popular Google Prism Theatre, an expanded Partners Theatre, roundtables, and the first-ever Infrastructure Client Group live event.

Plenary

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Rethinking

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Places

A woman in a black leather jacket and hat stands on a city street at dusk, looking at her phone with blurry cars and city buildings in the background.

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Transport’s potential to shape better, happier, healthier, sustainable and more successful places

The Places stream look at the positive role that transport – particularly when approached with an integrated transport mindset – plays in creating economically successful and sustainable places that support happier and healthier lifestyles with equitable access to employment, health, education, leisure and nature.

Energy

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Challenges on the provision of infrastructure for decarbonising transport in the UK

The decarbonisation of transport is wholly reliant on the clean energy transition and the energy stream explores getting decarbonised energy to where it’s needed for future mobility needs. Speakers will explore the importance of thinking differently, new business models, collaboration, procurement, innovation, funding and speeding up delivery.

Environment and
climate resilience

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Illustration of orange circuit lines with nodes on a white background

Orange circular icon with a white outline of a hand holding the earth and the word 'environment' below.

How transport infrastructure is responding to the climate and ecological emergencies

The environment stream address the climate resilience of transport systems and the response through infrastructure interventions to the climate and ecological emergencies.

The programme looks at both the need to mitigate against carbon emissions and nature depletion; and adapting existing infrastructure so that our transport systems are resilient in the face of increasing weather extremes.

Digital & data

A digital composite of city highways at night with illuminated car light trails and overlaid data graphics representing connectivity and technology.

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Purple circular icon with a white globe and person silhouette graphic above the text 'digital & data'.

Removing barriers to fully utilise the transformative potential of data and AI

Data and artificial intelligence are rapidly transforming the way we design, build, maintain and operate transport networks. They are also key to making transport infrastructure more efficient and effective, more sustainable, more resilient, more accessible and improving the user experience.

But to fully benefit from the opportunities we need to get much better at sharing data, addressing the cyber security risks created by a much more connected system and thinking about creating trust, transparency and accountability so that AI and data applications are positively embraced by both client authorities and society.