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Hello and welcome to the programme.

In this series of the bottom line, we're thinking about change that might occur in the aftermath of the COVID crisis.

And one kind of change that many have had plenty of time to think about is in our travel and transport habits.

Having been stuck at home, will we now stop being on the move quite as much?

Now, this year, local transport has been in crisis

as it has fixed costs and has had few passengers,

so the money drives up pretty quickly.

There's a bunch of issues to be worked through there.

Longer term, spending time at home has reminded

people they don't miss the daily commute. If they live in the city, they like the clean air.

The number of times I've heard people say, wouldn't it be nice to preserve the good that

emerged in lockdown? It makes me wonder whether there might actually be the will to change stuff.

Are we now questioning our

whole attitude to journeying to see other places or people locally and indeed internationally? Or to put

it another way, when COVID is over, will the private car and the plane be the ones to make the

biggest comeback or not? Do we want to live closer to each other so we can

pop by without transport? Or do we want to live more spaced apart where we have more room and

less congestion? Fascinating areas of life to ponder on. We'll hear from a business travel

specialist later, but let's meet my first two guests who each have an urban

transport background. Joining me from home in the Midlands is Laura Schof, who's managing

director of Transport for West Midlands, one of the UK's metropolitan authorities. And Laura,

...