disused railway.
Less than 20% has been
put back into use.
Hundreds of millions of pounds flow into active travel planning every year. Our research uncovers how this investment could go further — substantially further — if active travel funding prioritised infrastructure that already exists.
LV Lab will be developing novel spatial analysis, visioning, and systems thinking at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) at UCL — fusing an architectural background that understands context, place, history, and complex layered systems to a sector where those insights are typically absent from early-stage network planning.
The result is a new class of analysis: one that understands not just where people want to travel, but what infrastructure already exists to move them — and what it can become. Our goal is to unlock inter-urban and rural connectivity, local economic growth, and rural diversification through better evidence, not more public spending.
LV Lab's first product, the Latent Value Appraisal, is under active development. It is designed to be the first building block of an updated approach to greenway planning: one grounded in what is already there, what it is worth, and what it would take to realise its full potential.
The LVA is the first output of a wider programme of primary research and stakeholder engagement. We are working directly with local authorities, network planners, landowners, and grassroots organisations to map the real obstacles to disused rail conversion — building a ground-level picture of where the system breaks down and what evidence would actually move it forward.
The drive to unlock growth, improve rural mobility, and demonstrate measurable return on public investment has never been greater. Active Travel England is scaling its funding programmes and raising its expectations of local authorities.
LV Lab is bringing novel research methods, the latest spatial technology, and strategic thinking to this moment — to show local authorities, transport planners, and funders where the highest-value opportunities in their area actually are, and what it would take to unlock them.
The UK's disused rail network is not a planning problem waiting to be solved. It is a national asset waiting to be unlocked — one that, with the right evidence and the right vision, could become some of the best active travel infrastructure in the world.
LV Lab is in active development. If you're working on disused rail conversion, active travel network planning, or related research — we'd love to hear from you.