Welcome to the May 2006 issue of Transport. It will surely not have escaped the attention of most of our readership that 9 April 2006 was the bicentenary of the birth of Isambard Kingdom Brunel. As his contribution to the UK's transport infrastructure was significant, I felt it appropriate that we should mark the occasion in the issue of the Journal closest to the anniversary. I am therefore delighted that one of the country's leading authorities on I. K. Brunel, Dr Michael Bailey, Consultant and Railway Historian, and Past President of the Newcomen Society, kindly agreed to prepare an item for this issue. Dr Bailey's briefing note gives a fascinating insight into the thoughts of one of the most inspirational engineers of the nineteenth century. Dr Bailey will be one of the speakers at the Brunel Bicentenary Conference taking place in Bristol on 6–7 July 2006—for further details see www.brunelevents.co.uk. Three members of our Editorial Panel completed their terms of office at the end of 2005, namely Graham Bessant, Richard Wigginton and Peter Wiltshire: I am grateful to them all for their contributions. I am very pleased to welcome their replacements: Mervyn Carter from the Office of Rail Regulation, Professor Andrew Collop from Nottingham University and, most recently, Howard Potter from Transportation Planning International. Another of our Panel members, Richard Freer-Hewish, moved to Australia during the course of the year, but continues his involvement as an Overseas Corresponding Member. We therefore currently have a full complement on the Panel, drawn from across various different strands of the transport industry, which will be of great benefit as we continue into 2006 and beyond.
I am also pleased to report that the authors of four papers recently published in this Journal received prizes at the ICE Awards Ceremony in October 2005.
Applying commercial advertising skills by Peter Wiltshire (published in the May 2004 issue) won the Rees Jeffreys Award for best paper on highway engineering.
Planning for the Leeds Supertram by Roger Pickup (May 2004) won a Webb Prize for the best paper on railway engineering.
Evaluation of a national congestion charging system by Geoff Copley and John Dodgson (May 2004) also won a Webb Prize for the best paper on general transportation.
Injuries and fatalities in Turkish road traffic accidents by Mahir Gökdağ, M. Dursun Kaya, Ahmet Atalay and A. Samet Haşiloğlu (November 2004) won the Safety in Construction Medal.
An analysis of our readership indicates that it encompasses the many different aspects of the transport industry: transport planning and infrastructure; industry and academia; roads and railways; air and water. The ongoing challenge for the Editorial Panel is to try to ensure that during the course of a year's issues, our Journal will publish papers drawn from across all these elements, so that you will all find something of interest in each issue, and will spread the word among your colleagues. If your particular strand is unrepresented, why not consider writing a paper yourself? We are always grateful to receive synopses for consideration. I look forward to hearing from you.
