Alan James has written a number of books and project-specific reports for Government and other decision-maker audiences. These publications illustrate Expert Alliance outputs and are available for download by following the links below. Books are generally available on the Apple iBooks store.

Testing the Tesla Model S in the Real World

An extended test of the world’s most advanced electric car on UK roads, including comparative financial analysis of its costs and benefits versus conventionally-powered cars, taking into account UK tax breaks and other incentives for electric vehicles pertaining at the time of the test in 2014.

The PHEV Factbook

A detailed analysis of the real world performance, costs and benefits of owning and operating a Plug-In Hybrid Vehicle (PHEV) based on data gathered over 10,000 miles. Includes analysis of the impact of UK tax breaks and incentives for electric vehicles on whole-life cost of ownership.

HS2 The Stoke Route: the Smart Way to the North

The business case for routing the Birmingham to Manchester section of the UK’s proposed North:South high speed railway through Stoke-on-Trent, delivering more economic growth for less capital cost than any other scheme.

Published by Stoke-on-Trent City Council. Authored by Alan James, who served as Project Director for the Stoke Route HS2 programme. This publication is also available in PDF format here.

In March 2015, the Department for Transport confirmed that HS2 trains would serve the city of Stoke-on-Trent when the line opens in 2026.

UK Ultraspeed Factbook

Available as a PDF, this publication is the business case for the proposed 500 km/h (311 mph) maglev strategic transport network for Britain.

Alan James served as CEO of UK Ultraspeed, the company established to develop the proposal to deploy the Transrapid magnetic levitation system in Britain. This document provides the detail behind the strategic business, policy and financial case Alan and his team put to the Prime Minister and others.

UK Ultraspeed Business Case

London – Birmingham – Leeds – Manchester – Liverpool

Available as a PDF, this document is the high level business case, developed at the request of the Conservative Party when in opposition before the 2010 General Election and with the support of northern cities, for a 500 km/h (311 mph) maglev strategic transport network not only linking London to the cities of England’s Greater North, but also linking those cities to each other.

Both the UK Ultraspeed publications explain the strategic business, policy and economic case Alan and the UK Ultraspeed team developed for a radically new 500 km/h transport system.

The key objectives were not only to transform travel, for instance with a London to Birmingham trip time of under 30 minutes, but also to create a super-regional economy across the North to act as a genuine counterweight to London and the South East. Had maglev been adopted, UK Ultraspeed would have linked more cities, with significantly faster journey times, and delivered greater economic benefit, at around half the capital cost of the conventional rail HS2 scheme.

The North Tyne Bike Ride Guide

In his leisure time, Alan is a keen cyclist. He wrote this comprehensive guide to Northern England’s cycling paradise on the rural backroads either side of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland.

The book includes fully detailed route descriptions and gradient profiles derived from metre-by-metre GPS traces, plus fully interactive mapping and Google Earth and Streetview integration.

You can read a sample chapter here.