Engineering and the Environment

John Preston

BA MA PhD MCILT FRGS FCIHT

Primary position:
Head of the Civil, Maritime and Environmental Engineering and Science Unit and Professor of Rail Transport

Professor Preston is Head of the Civil, Maritime and Environmental Engineering and Science Academic Unit. He was previously Director of the Transportation Research Group (2008-11) and Head of the School of Civil Engineering and the Environment (2010-11).  He has over 20 years experience in transport teaching and research.  He has taught transport options on Economics, Engineering, Geography, Management and Planning courses. His research in transport covers demand and cost modelling, regulatory studies, and land-use and environment interactions. His initial work concentrated on rail but subsequent work has covered all the major modes of transport. He has held over 120 research grants and contracts, worth almost  £5 million, and has published over 200 articles, book chapters, conference and working papers. He is a member of the World Conference on Transport Research Society (WCTR) Scientific Committee, the Co-Chair of the WCTR Rail Special Interest Group, a Committee Member of the International Association of Rail Operations Research (IAROR) and of the International Conference on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport.  He is an elected Fellow of the Transport Research Foundation.  His current work at Southampton includes leadership of the OCCASION project on rail capacity and the iConnect consortium examining  walking and cycling, whilst he is providing transport economics research to the Track21 and Infrastructure Transitions Research Consortium projects.

Prof. John Preston's photo

The University of Southampton's electronic library (e-prints)

Article

Sahlqvist, S.L., Song, Y., Bull, Fiona, Adams, E., Preston, John M. and Ogilvie, David (2011) Effect of questionnaire length, personalization and reminder type on response rate to a complex postal survey: randomized controlled trial. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 11, (62)(doi:10.1186/1471-2288-11-62)
Ogilvie, David, Bull, Fiona, Powell, Jane, Cooper, Ashley R., Brand, Christian, Mutrie, Nanette, Preston, J.M. and Rutter, Harry (2011) An applied ecological framework for evaluating infrastructure to promote walking and cycling: the iConnect study. American Journal of Public Health, 101, (3), 473-481. (doi:10.2105/ajph.2010.198002)
Preston, John and Jansson, Kjell (2010) Workshop report - Public policy and transport. Research in Transportation Economics, 29, (1), 319-322. (doi:10.1016/j.retrec.2010.07.040)
Blainey, Simon P. and Preston, John M. (2010) Modelling local rail demand in South Wales. Transportation Planning and Technology, 33, (1), 55-73. (doi:10.1080/03081060903429363)
Brand, Christian and Preston, John M. (2010) ‘60-20 emission’—The unequal distribution of greenhouse gas emissions from personal, non-business travel in the UK. Transport Policy, 17, (1), 9-19. (doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2009.09.001)
Preston, John (2010) What’s so funny about peace, love and transport integration? Research in Transportation Economics, 29, (1), 329-338. (doi:10.1016/j.retrec.2010.07.042)
Preston, John (2009) Epilogue: Transport policy and social exclusion - some reflections. Transport Policy, 16, (3), 140-142. (doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2009.04.003)
Preston, John (2009) Trends in European railways over the last two decades. Built Environment, 35, (1), 11-23. (doi:10.2148/benv.35.1.11)
Jorgensen, Finn and Preston, John (2009) The relationship between fare elasticity and trip length - some comments. International Journal of Transport Economics, 36, (3), 361-375.
Preston, John, Wall, Graham, Batley, Richard, Ibanez, Nicolas and Shires, Jeremy (2009) Impact of delays on passenger train services: evidence from Great Britain. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2117, 14-23. (doi:10.3141/2117-03)
Preston, John (2008) A review of passenger rail franchising in Britain: 1996/1997–2006/2007. Research in Transportation Economics, 22, (1), 71-77. (doi:10.1016/j.retrec.2008.05.022)
Preston, John and Wall, Graham (2008) The ex-ante and ex-post economic and social impacts of the introduction of high-speed trains in South East England. Planning Practice and Research, 23, (3), 403-422. (doi:10.1080/02697450802423641)
Preston, John and Takama, Takeshi (2008) Forecasting the effects of road user charge by stochastic agent-based modelling. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 42, (4), 738-749. (doi:10.1016/j.tra.2008.01.020)
Obeng, Kofi, Preston, John M. and Talley, Wayne K. (2008) Transit economics. Research in Transportation Economics, (Guest Editorial), 23, (1), 1-3. (doi:10.1016/j.retrec.2008.10.001)
Preston, John (2008) Competition in transit markets. [in special issue: Transit Economics] Research in Transportation Economics, 23, (1), 75-84. (doi:10.1016/j.retrec.2008.10.009)
Alexandersson, Gunnar, Nash, Chris and Preston, John (2008) Risk and reward in rail contracting [In special issue: Reforms in Public Transport]. Research in Transportation Economics, 22, (1), 31-35. (doi:10.1016/j.retrec.2008.05.008)
Jørgensen, F. and Preston, J. M. (2007) The Relationship between Fare and Travel Distance. Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, 41, (3), 451-468.
Hensher, David A., Yvrande-Billon, Anne, Macario, Rosario, Preston, John, White, Peter, Tyson, Bill, Van de Velde, D. M., van Wee, Bert, Guilherme de Aragato, Joaquim Jose, Medeiros dos Santos, Enilson, Orrico Filho, Romulo Dante and Hensher, David (2007) Delivering value for money to government through efficient and effective public transit service continuity: some thoughts. Transport Reviews, 27, (4), 411-448. (doi:10.1080/01441640701192351)
Preston, John and Raje, Fiona (2007) Accessibility, mobility and transport-related social exclusion. Journal of Transport Geography, 15, (3), 151-160. (doi:10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2006.05.002)
Jones, Chris, Griffin, Mike and Preston, John (2007) Making travel more attractive for passengers and for the environment. Railway Strategies, (December-Januar), 208-212.
Preston, J. M. (2007) Modelling to give true cost answers. Transport Times, 36, (2), 22.
Paulley, Neil, Balcombe, Richard, Mackett, Roger, Titheridge, Helena, Preston, John, Wardman, Mark, Shires, Jeremy and White, Peter (2006) The demand for public transport: the effects of fares, quality of service, income and car ownership. [In special issue: Innovation and Integration in Urban Transport Policy]. Transport Policy, 13, (4), 295-306. (doi:10.1016/j.tranpol.2005.12.004)
Whitehead, Tim, Simmonds, David and Preston, John (2006) The effect of urban quality improvements on economic activity. Journal of Environmental Management, 80, (1), 1-12. (doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2005.01.029)
Kwon, Tae-Hyeong and Preston, John (2005) Driving forces behind the growth of per-capita car driving distances in the UK, 1970-2000. Transport Reviews, 25, (4), 467-490. (doi:10.1080/0144164052000336489)
Kim, J.H., Pagliara, F and Preston, J. (2005) The Intention to Move and Residential Location Choice Behaviour. Urban Studies, 42, (9), 1621-1636. (doi:10.1080/00420980500185611)
Whitehead, Tim, Preston, John and Holvad, Torben (2005) The whole-life impacts of transport-charging interventions on business performance: A time-marching framework. Environment and Planning A, 37, (5), 877-894. (doi:10.1068/a35166)
Preston, J.M., Kim, J.H. and Pagliara, F. (2004) Transport policy impact on residential location. International Review of Public Administration., 9, 71-87.
Brand, C. and Preston, J. (2003) Which technology for urban public transport? Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Transport, 156, (4), 201-210. (doi:10.1680/tran.156.4.201.37818)
Preston, J.M. (2003) Transport studies unit, university of Oxford: annual report 2002. Traffic Engineering and Control, 44, (7), 20-23.
Kim, J., Pagliara, F. and Preston, J.M. (2003) An analysis of residential location choice behaviour in Oxfordshire, UK: A combined stated preference approach. International Review of Public Administration, 8, (1), 103-114.
Jorgensen, E. and Preston, J.M. (2003) Estimating bus operators' short-run, medium-term and long-run marginal costs. International Journal of Transport Economics, 30, (1), 3-24.
Preston, J.M. and Van de Velde, D (2002) Competitive tendering of public transport. Transport Reviews, 22, (3), 336-345.
Preston, J. M. (2002) The Transaction Cost Economics of Railways. Trasporti Europei, 20/21, 6-15, 2002, (21), 6-15.
Preston, John (2001) Integrating transport with socio-economic activity - a research agenda for the new millennium. Journal of Transport Geography, 9, (1), 13-24. (doi:10.1016/S0966-6923(00)00039-9)
Preston, J.M. (2001) An overview of public transport reforms in Great Britain and forecasts for the future. International Journal of Transport Economics, 28, (1), 23-48.
Preston, John (2001) Franchising and re-franchising of passenger rail services in Britain. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 1742, 1-8. (doi:10.3141/1742-01)

Book

Pagliara, Francesca, Preston, John and Simmonds, David (2010) Residential Location Choice - Models and Applications, London, GB, Springer, 250pp.
Rajé, Fiona, Grieco, Margaret, Hine, Julian and Preston, John (2004) Transport, demand management and social inclusion: the need for ethnic perspectives, Aldershot, UK, Ashgate, 184pp.

Book Section

Preston, J.M. (2009) Public transport. In, Kitchin, Rob and Thrift, Nigel (eds.) International Encyclopedia of Human Geography. , Elsevier, 452-459.
Preston, John (2008) Public transport subsidisation. In, Ison, Stephen and Rye, Tom (eds.) The Implementation and Effectiveness of Transport Demand Management Measures: An International Perspective. Aldershot, UK, Ashgate, 189-209.
Preston, J.M. (2008) Is Labour delivering a sustainable railway? In, Docherty, Iain and Shaw, Jon (eds.) Traffic Jam: Ten Years of 'Sustainable' Transport in the UK. Bristol, UK, Policy Press, 75-96.
Preston, J.M. and O'Connor, K. (2008) Revitalised transport geographies. In, Knowles, R., Shaw, J. and Docherty, I. (eds.) Transport Geographies: Mobilities, Flows and Spaces. , Blackwell, 227-237.
Preston, J. M. (2007) Contracting-out public transport planning: options and prospects. In, Rosario, M., Viegas, J. and Hensher, D.A. (eds.) Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport: Selected Papers from the 8th International Conference. USA, Elsevier, 171-188.
Preston, J.M. (2007) Transport: The movement of goods and people. In, Douglas, Ian, Huggett, Richard and Robinson, Mike (eds.) Companion Encyclopedia of Geography - The Environment and Humankind: Revised Edition. London, UK, Routledge, 199-212.
Preston, J.M. and Cowrie, J. (2005) Key performance indicators and data for monitoring and auditing: theme C. In, Hensher, David A. (ed.) Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport. 8th International Conference on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport (Thredbo 8) Oxford, UK, Elsevier, 549-560.
Preston, J. M. (2005) The road to Rio: a brief history of the international conferences on competition and ownership in land passenger transport. In, Macario, R., Viegas, J. and Hensher, D.A. (eds.) Competition and ownership in land passenger transport: selected papers from the 8th International Conference. USA, Elsevier, 7-20.
Preston, J.M., Huang, B. and Whelan, G. (2005) Determining optimal bus service provision: the role of quality in the service mix. In, Hensher, D.A. (ed.) Competition and ownership in land passenger transport: selected papers from the 8th International Conference. USA, Elsevier, 177-194. (THREDBO 8).
Preston, J.M., Button, K. and Hensher, D. (2005) Tendering of Services. In, Button, K. and Hensher, D. (eds.) Handbook of Transport Strategy, Policy and Institutions. , Elsevier Science, 65-82.
Preston, J.M. (2004) Moving Transport Geography Forward. In, Brian Hoyle Lecture in Transport Geography. International Geographical Union Conference , Oxford University Press.
Preston, J.M., Hayes, G. and Lehmkuhl, D. (2004) Transport. In, Compston, H. (ed.) Handbook of Public Policy in Europe: Britain, France and Germany. Basingstoke, UK, Palgrave Macmillan, 205-216.
Preston, J.M. (2003) A thoroughbred in the making?: The bus industry under Labour. In, Docherty, I. and Shaw, J. (eds.) A New Deal for Transport? Oxford, UK, Blackwell, 158-177. (RGS-IBG Book Series).
Preston, J.M. and Havinden, M. (2003) The transport problem: some solutions. In, Havinden, M. (ed.) Visions for Oxford in the 21st century. Oxford, UK, Oxford Civic Society, 136-144.
Preston, J.M. (2001) Bus service regulation and competition. In, Grayling, T. (ed.) Any More Fares? Delivering Better Bus Services. , Institure for Public Policy Research, 40-54.

Conference or Workshop Item

Blainey, Simon P., Preston, John M., Armstrong, J. and Hickford, A.J. (2011) Where the train doesn’t take the strain – an analysis of inter-urban journeys where rail is an unattractive option. In, 4th International Seminar on Railway Operations, Modelling and Analysis, Rome, IT,
Armstrong, J., Blainey, S.P., Preston, J.M. and Hood, I. (2011) Developing a CUI-based approach to network capacity assessment. In, 4th International Seminar on Railway Operations, Modelling and Analysis, 16 - 18 Feb 2011.
Preston, J.M. (2010) Competition for long distance passenger rail services: the emerging evidence. In, 18th International Symposium on Transport Economics and Policy: the Future of Interurban Passenger Transport, Madrid, ES,
Blainey, S.P. and Preston, J.M. (2010) Gateways to prosperity? The long term impacts of new local railway stations. In, European Transport Conference, Glasgow, GB, 11 - 13 Oct 2010.
Cascetta, E., Pagliara, F., Brancaccio, V. and Preston, J.M. (2010) Evaluating regeneration impacts of the Channel tunnel rail link. In, 12th World Conference on Transport Research, Lisbon, PT, 11 - 15 Jul 2010.
Blainey, S.P. and Preston, J.M. (2010) A geographically weighted regression based analysis of rail commuting around Cardiff, South Wales. In, 12th World Conference on Transport Research, Lisbon, PT, 11 - 15 Jul 2010.
Armstrong, J. and Preston, J.M. (2010) Rail in the context of climate change: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. In, 12th World Conference on Transport Research, Lisbon, PT, 11 - 15 Jul 2010.
Preston, J. M., Song, Y. and Ghali, K. (2010) iConnect: can engineering interventions to promote walking and cycling improve public health? In, Public Health Day, Southampton, GB,
Khadem Sameni, M., Preston, J.M. and Landex, A. (2010) Revising UIC methods for capacity analysis: revenue generating capacity. In, American Society of Mechanical Engineers Joint Rail Conference, Urbana, US, 27 - 29 Apr 2010.
Khadem Sameni, M., Preston, J.M. and Armstrong, J. (2010) Railway capacity challenge: measuring and managing in Britain. In, American Society of Mechanical Engineers Joint Rail Conference, Urbana, US, 27 - 29 Apr 2010.
Khadem-Semini, M. K., Preston, J. M. and Armstrong, J. (2010) Railway capacity challenge: measuring and managing. In, 42nd Annual UTSG Conference, Plymouth, UK, 05 - 07 Jan 2010.
Blainey, S.P. and Preston, J.M. (2009) Assessing the potential performance of new local railway stations. In, European Transport Conference, Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, 05 - 06 Oct 2009. 18pp.
Preston, J.M. (2009) What's So funny About peace, love and integration? In, International Conference on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport, Delft, The Netherlands,
Armstrong, J. and Preston, J.M. (2009) Alternative railway futures. In, Annual International Conference: Geography, Knowledge and Society, Manchester, UK, 26 - 28 Aug 2009.
Preston, J.M., Armstrong, J. and Docherty, I (2009) The economic case for high speed rail: the case of Glasgow-Edinburgh. In, Presented at the RGS/IBG Annual Conference, Manchester, UK, 26 - 28 Aug 2009.
Armstrong, J. and Preston, J.M. (2009) Automating the production of train graphs and the calculation of CUI Values. In, 3rd International Seminar on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis, Engineering and Optimisation Approaches, Zurich, Switzerland,
Preston, J. M. and Batley, R. (2009) The impact of delays on passenger trains services. In, 2009 Transportation Research Board 88th Annual Meeting, Washington DC, USA, 11 - 15 Jan 2009.
Preston, J.M. and Spear, J. (2008) Transport governance and city regions: the case of rail. In, Presented to the Transport Geography Research Group Session on Scales of Changing Transport Governance. RGS/IBG Annual Conference., Manchester, UK, 26 - 29 Aug 2009.
Preston, J.M. and Powell, J. (2008) Methodological issues in measuring and evaluating physical measures to promote walking and cycling. At 5th Cycling and Society Symposium, Bristol, UK, 08 - 09 Sep 2008.
Preston, J.M. (2008) The challenge we face - and how transport economics has helped. In, Plenary paper to the Universities' Transport Study Group 40th Annnual Conference
Preston, J. M., Blainey, S. P., Wardman, M., Chintakayala, P. K., Heywood, C., Sheldon, R. and Wall, G. T. (2008) The effect of station enhancements on rail demand. In, European Transport Conference 2008, Noordwijkerhout, Netherlands, 06 - 08 Oct 2008.
Preston, J.M. (2007) The good, the bad and the ugly: A review of rail franchising in Britain. In, 10th International Conference on Competition and Ownership in Land Passenger Transport, Queensland, Australia, 12 - 17 Aug 2007. , 103-113.
Armstrong, John and Preston, John (2007) Possible railway futures. In, Transport - The Next 50 Years, Christchurch, New Zealand, 25 - 27 Jul 2007.
Preston, J.M. and Wall, G.T. (2007) The impact of high speed trains on socio-economic activity. In, Proceedings of the 11th World Conference on Transport Research, Berkeley, USA, 24 - 28 Jun 2007.
Preston, J.M., Armstrong, J. and Goodman, C.R. (2007) Decision support system for dynamic re-scheduling of trains under disturbance. In, Proceedings of the 11th World Conference on Transport Research, Berkeley, USA, 24 - 28 Jun 2007.
Armstrong, John, Preston, John and Carlson, Matt (2007) Automating the import of electronic timetable data to EMME/2-based public transport models. In, 2nd International Seminar on Railway Operations Modelling and Analysis, Hannover, DE, 28 - 30 Mar 2007.
Wardman, M., Whelan, G. and Preston, J.M. (2007) Strategic forecasting of passenger rail demand in Great Britain. In, Proceedings of the 11th World Conference on Transport Research, Berkeley, USA, 24 - 28 Jun 2007.
Preston, J.M. and Wall, G.T. (2007) Meeting rail passenger user needs: the role of information technologies. In, 11th World Conference on Transport Research, California, USA, 24 - 28 Jul 2007.
Preston, J.M., Wall, G.T. and Larbie, A. (2006) The impact of high speed trains on socio-economic activity: the case of Ashford (Kent). In, Fourth Conference on Railroad Industry Structure, Competition and Investment, Madrid, Spain, 19 - 21 Oct 2006.
Brand, C. and Preston, J.M. (2006) TEST - A tool for evaluating strategically integrated public transport. In, European Transport Conference, Strasbourg, France, 18 - 20 Sep 2006.
Weston, P., Goodman, C., Takagi, R., Bouch, C., Armstrong, J. and Preston, J. (2006) Minimising train delays in a mixed traffic railway network with consideration of passenger delay. In, 7th World Congress on Railway Research, Montréal, Canada, 04 - 08 Jun 2006.
Preston, J.M. (2005) The deregulation and privatisation of public transport in Britian: Twenty years on. In, Transport Reseach Foundation, Wokingham, UK, 05 May 2005. , p.16.

Monograph

Preston, J.M. (2004) Transport Studies Unit, University of Oxford: annual report 2002. London, UK, Hemming Information Services
Mackett, R., Paulley, N., Preston, J.M., Shires, J., Titheridge, H., Wardman, M. and White, P., Balcombe, R. (ed.) (2004) The demand for public transport: a practical guide. Wokingham, UK, TRL Limited, 246pp. (TRL593)
 

CodeTitleRole
CENV6112 TRANSPORT, ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENTCoordinator
CENV6016 TRANSPORT ECONOMICSCoordinator
CENV6044 RESEARCH PROJECT: TRANSPORTATION PLANNING AND ENGINEERINGLecturer
CENV6101 PASSENGER AND FREIGHT TRANSPORTLecturer

Prof. John Preston
Engineering and the Environment
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton
SO17 1BJ

Room Number: 22/2015

Telephone: (023) 8059 4660
Facsimile: (023) 8059 3152
Email: J.M.Preston@soton.ac.uk