“Resilience isn’t a single intervention, it’s a discipline that should be embedded in the transport lifecycle, not treated as an afterthought”. That was the view of one attendee shared during Prospect’s fifth roundtable focused on the UK’s most urgent challenges. It’s a principle that might apply to every sector explored in this report.
During a wide-ranging conversation, the UK’s transport priorities were viewed through the prism of the government’s 10-year infrastructure strategy, need for innovative and long-term thinking, the relative merits of new build versus renewal, a tendency towards risk averse investment and the impacts of climate change.
From strategy to action
Kicking off the discussion—and reflecting the need to “bake” resilience into policy and planning, rather than treat it as an added extra—attendees explored what strengthening the UK’s transport looks like in practice. For some it is about long-term infrastructure durability; for others it’s effective response to sudden system shocks. All acknowledged the existing pressures that exist across roads, rail, sea ports and airports, and as such welcomed the intent of the government’s infrastructure strategy. Success, however, will be judged by deeds, not just words.
The test of a successful strategy, suggested one roundtable voice, is whether it encourages “us do something different about infrastructure”. For example, will the much-needed upgrade to key parts of the country’s road and rail network—described as a “Victorian asset”—embrace long-term fixes that reflect the future effects of climate change? As another attendee noted: “You don’t want to go back in 30 years to fix a bridge that was designed to last 80 because it hasn’t allowed for the kind of flood levels that we’re expecting to see in a 2°C world by 2050 and a 4°C world by 2100”.
Long-term planning may be desirable but it often clashes with political reality. “From the politician’s point of view, if there’s no reward within the latest election cycle, well it doesn’t exist”.
Another consideration is whether to build new or to renew. One attendee observed that the government’s last road investment strategy suggested a pivot away from new build to talk of “prioritising maintenance and renewals”. The rail upgrade might follow a similar path but this will require “changing the regulatory incentives, changing the policy incentive so [renewal] is properly valued”.
Risk-averse investment
One attendee called for an honest “conversation about what the right level of investment is and what people are willing to pay for”. He added: “There might be bits of the network that we have to accept are too expensive to adapt in order to maintain current service levels”. Traditionally transport investment has tended towards caution. The reason? Risk allocation where infrastructure is treated as an alternative asset by pension funds, insurance companies and others, with all looking for “long-term defensive cash flows”.
Investment certainty is a fascination “unique to infrastructure”, argued one roundtable voice who insisted that the search is likely to prove futile. Instead, transport should follow other sectors where people appear willing to invest “walls of capital” into highly competitive and uncertain markets. Consider, for example, that need in the context of the adaptation required on a rail network where 596 railway stations and 3,544km of rail network are at risk from surface water flooding across the UK.
Integration and interdependencies
Finally, a return to a theme that has featured throughout Prospect’s Resilience Series—namely the interdependencies that exist between different parts of the UK’s critical infrastructure. While the UK may be “good at understanding individual assets”, there remains a failure to understand how discrete parts of the industrial ecosystem work together.
Without necessary integration between and across critical infrastructure, the UK’s response to system shocks will remain reactive, not proactive. “It’s very easy to focus in on a particular sector, but it doesn’t help us resolve the problem. It doesn’t give us consistency”. In other countries, notably the Netherlands, there is a concerted effort to bring ministers with different policy responsibilities—housing, health and transport—into “joint groups” that decide where funding should be allocated.
To that end, attendees warned of cascading failures, where neglect in one area leads to detrimental effects elsewhere. A notable example is the consequences an energy outage has on transport and beyond. “Power disruption to the rail network can lead to road congestion. It can lead to people not getting to work. It can lead to economic impacts”.
Transport Resilience, a roundtable jointly hosted by Prospect and Amey, took place on Thursday 30th April 2026
Transport infrastructure has always played a defining role in shaping the UK’s economy, communities and everyday lives. It links people with jobs, businesses with markets, and communities with the services and opportunities that support growth and quality of life. But as this roundtable makes clear, the task now is to ensure our transport networks are not only better built and operated, but resilient enough to meet the demands of the future.
That future is increasingly complex. Ageing assets, climate change, funding pressures, rising demand and rapid technological change are placing new pressures on our roads, railways, ports and airports. These systems are also more interconnected than ever, meaning disruption in one part of the network can quickly affect another, with consequences for productivity, public confidence and daily life.
Resilience must therefore mean more than responding to sudden shocks. It is about long-term preparedness, better decision-making and integrated planning across systems and sectors.
The UK Government’s 10-year infrastructure strategy is a welcome step in providing greater visibility and national direction. The task now is to turn that intent into action by renewing critical assets, adapting to a changing climate, unlocking investment and delivering outcomes communities can see and feel.
This report reflects both the scale of the challenge and the opportunity ahead. By thinking differently, collaborating more effectively and embedding resilience from the outset, we can create transport networks that are stronger, more adaptable and better able to support future generations.
Colin Wood
Managing Director, Consulting at Amey
