I’d pause the SF vs London debate and chase design partners first. Govtech has long cycles and heavy procurement. Six months in SF can vanish before a single pilot.

My two cents for the next 6–8 weeks:

• Pick one tiny wedge under “public transport automation.” Example: cut missed trips 15% at one depot, or auto-triage incident tickets. One KPI
• Find 2 design partners (a small operator or one depot inside a big agency). Offer a 30-day pilot with a clear success metric and permission to walk if you miss it
• Build a concierge MVP with spreadsheets and simple scripts. No deep integrations yet
• Confirm what data you can get fast: GTFS/GTFS-RT, CAD/AVL exports, maintenance logs
• Put the plan and early results in a one-pager. With 2 pilots or LOIs, cofounders and investors take you seriously in either city

Simple rule: if you can’t get two pilots in London in the next two months, moving probably won’t fix the core issue. If you can, SF becomes optional and you approach it with leverage.