#Railnatter

Latest Episodes:

#Railnatter Episode 203: The (long) history of the Transpennine Route Upgrade Jan 31, 2024

Show notes

Why is the railway network in the North so abysmal? Well, a lot of it comes down to a rather dismal series of bad policy decisions made through the 1990s and 2000s inflicted by - you guessed it - the over-centralised UK government. Constant cancellations of previous projects has led us to the point where the current "TRU" is only going to finish delivering its outputs in the 2030s, over 50 years after the project was originally mooted.

This week, we'll look at that history and working out where things could have been done differently...

Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Merch at https://garethdennis.co.uk/merch. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

#Railnatter Episode 202: Digging into the failure stats for the Great Western Jan 24, 2024

Show notes

There's plenty of news to catch up on, but the big question we'll be answering this episode is "are track defects a particular problem on the Great Western?" - and we'll answer this by looking at data freely available on the @office-of-rail-and-road's online data portal, accessible here: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/

Join LIVE to find out the answer and to pitch in!

#Railnatter Episode 201: Getting ready for the All Ireland Rail Review Jan 17, 2024

Show notes

This has been much requested given the number of viewers from Ireland - to warm us up in advance of the release of the All Ireland Strategic Rail Review at some point in Spring, I thought we'd flick through the consultation paper (which is really good!) as well as getting our heads around the geography of the island of Ireland.

We'll use our patented* population network method to work out what the ideal railway system should look like, as well as considering the suburban needs of the big cities. There will be maps!

#Railnatter Episode 200: Every episode of #Railnatter so far (episodes 100-199, summarised) Jan 10, 2024

Show notes

It's our official 200th episode! How have we got here?!

To celebrate, I'm running back through the previous episodes since the Episode 100 round-up - but this time not in running order. We'll group episodes with common themes to see if we can remember what we learnt - and if we've learnt anything new since...

Watch the Episode 100 round-up: • #RailNatter | Episode 100: Every epis...

Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #Railnatter at / garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Merch at https://garethdennis.co.uk/merch. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

#Railnatter Episode 199: Hyperloop One is gone but when will this nonsense die? Jan 03, 2024

Show notes

Now I've been going at Hyperloop's jugular for years now, and suffice to say it remains total and utter nonsense unworthy of any technological debate and only marginally worth one at all. We all know it is guff intended to both delay real railway solutions and to allow car and plane people a seat at governmental and regulatory "mass transit" tables.

Yet Hyperloop refuses to die. Even when probably its most well-known company has now bitten the dust, entirely as predicted. Well, we'll dig into why this might be, and will take a look at the current status of all of the Hyperloop players.

Join LIVE at 8pm UK time to get stuck in, ask questions, and hope collectively that 2024 is the year Hyperloop finally snuffs it. Also to toast what is technically our 200th episode!

See all of the stuff Gareth has written about Hyperloop: https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3Agarethdennis%20%23loopyhype&src=recent_search_click&f=live

#Railnatter Episode 198: Should Britain stop closing the railway at Christmas? Dec 27, 2023

Show notes

Now this one really is festive - and it will be live, so you are very much encouraged to bring along your favourite festive tipple... We're asking the big Christmas questions: should the railway shut down around Christmas, and should we concentrate the vast majority of our engineering works over a period when so many people make the sorts of trips the railway is perfectly placed to cater for, and at a time when weather and blood-alcohol levels are at their most dangerous?

Join LIVE to share your thoughts, ask your questions and generally try to hash out an answer... See you at 8pm!

#Railnatter Episode 197: The Tubular Tale Of Torksey Viaduct Dec 20, 2023

Show notes

Gather round the hearth for the first of our (still live!) festive episodes... This time we are exploring the story of the Torksey Viaduct, a tale which navigates the intertwining histories of railway companies, engineers, bridge design, competency, Megawatt Valley and more besides.

Grab a mince pie, pour a port, and listen in!

#Railnatter Episode 196: A rage-turn of the UK’s ”Plan for Drivers” Dec 13, 2023

Show notes

The UK government's "Plan For Drivers" didn't end up being as popular as they thought it might be... For a festive treat, this week's episode is doing a traditional page turn of what we at Natter Towers are sure is a well thought-through piece of long-term transport policy* - join us at the usual time to take a look for yourselves!

*we do not think this

#Railnatter Episode 195: How to draw transit maps in PowerPoint Dec 06, 2023

Show notes

Lots of people have been asking for this one! You may notice I use a lot of maps and diagrams on here, on Twitter, and elsewhere too... People act surprised when I tell them I do them all in PowerPoint, because it is the best tool for the job in most cases!

To get a free, interactive tutorial via the medium of me making up a few maps on the hoof, join LIVE on Wednesday at 8pm... Suggestions are coming in via the Discord server (link below) for where those maps are, by the way, and the Bristol Metro is one of the favourites!

#Railnatter Episode 194: Digging into Britain’s passenger rail usage data Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

The Department for Transport have stopped up the datafeed that gives us the UK's full rail passenger ridership, so instead we're going to take a whizz through the ORR's latest passenger rail usage report to give us a feel for what's going on, how demand is looking across rail operators, and what this means when we think about the future.

Join LIVE at 8pm on Wednesday!

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