Professor Peter White

I joined the University (then known as the Polytechnic of Central London) in 1971, as a Lecturer in Public Transport Systems, receiving the title of Professor in 1992. I retired from regular teaching work at the University in September 2015, but continue in the role of Emeritus Professor, with ongoing research and writing interests in public transport. While teaching in this and related subjects at postgraduate level, principally on the MSc Transport Planning and Management course, I developed research activities in this field through supervision of research students, MSc dissertations and research staff, along with personal research. This has focused in recent years on impacts of privatisation and deregulation in the coach, bus and rail sectors, together with specific innovations such as the role of smartcard data. I have  supervised 16 PhD and MPhil theses, but no longer take on any new research students.

Please note that I no longer have an office base on campus (but can arrange meetings there), and should be contacted by the e-mail address shown.

External Activities

I am a member of the editorial advisory board of journal 'Transportation'. I have acted as a specialist advisor to House of Commons committees' inquiries into transport-related issues on five occasions, the last in respect of the Transport Committee's enquiry into competition in the bus market, published in September 2012. I gave evidence to the House of Lords enquiry into urban transport in 2022.  

I am a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (FCILT), and a member of its Bus and Coach Policy Group established in 2018. 

From time to time I give papers at conferences, and/or chair sessions thereof.

I am the author of the textbook 'Public Transport: its Planning, Management and Operation', first published in 1976. A sixth edition was published by Routledge/Taylor & Francis in 2017. I have also published many papers in academic journals and the technical press. My research in recent years has focussed on the effects of privatisation and deregulation in the coach and local bus industries. I have particular interests in rural public transport, data collection in public transport (especially that from smartcard systems), the effects of service quality on ridership, bus rapid transit, express coach services and the impacts of working from home on transport systems.

In 2006-2007 I managed a study undertaken jointly with research colleagues at University College London and Imperial College London into the effects of teleworking and teleconferencing on transport, sponsored by British Telecom and Transport for London. Subsequently, I have followed up this work to examine the combined effects of working from home and the Covid-19 pandemic on public transport systems in Britain and other countries.

In 2025 I was one of the specialists commissioned by Wales Centre for Public Policy to advise on options for bus franchising in that country, with particular reference to reducing emissions and increasing bus ridership.

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.