#Railnatter

Latest Episodes:

#RailNatter Episode 153: High Speed 2 - taking a look inside a tunnel boring machine Feb 15, 2023

Show notes

Precisely one year ago, a few folks and I had the delight of a tour inside one of HS2's tunnel boring machines as it scoured its way underneath Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire... And what a spectacular experience it was!

Hopefully I'll capture some of that excitement and energy as I bring you along on the tour with me... And will I unlock the mystery of the pink helmet?

Watch @geofftech2's video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wM6v...

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

#RailNatter Episode 152: How Britain’s post-war intercity rail network should have looked Feb 08, 2023

Show notes

After WW2 and nationalisation, Britain's railway operations essentially assumed their 1923 structure and shape, and this may not have led to the best outcomes... When it came to infrastructure, each company may have had their main line, but were these the best routes when you took a view of Britain as a whole?

This episode we'll have a look, courtesy of some serious map explorations!

Download the Google Earth map file here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pg1yvt2zy0dcmc3/%23RailNatter_Ep152.kmz?dl=1

#RailNatter Episode 151: How does modal shift work? Feb 01, 2023

Show notes

I talk about it a lot, but what is modal shift, how does it work, and why is it both a critical tool and a critical outcome of enhancing and expanding public transport?

We'll be page-turning Greengauge21's report on the subject, mostly covering HS2 but also considering high speed rail and its wider released capacity benefits.

#RailNatter Episode 150: Things Are Going Just Great Jan 25, 2023

Show notes

Returning champion Bonnie Price is joining us to go through The News, since quite a bit has been happening since the holidays. Government data obfuscation, strikes, European shenanigans... Bonnie and I will chew through it and see if there's some light at the end of the tunnel!

It's not all bad, either... There'll be some fun stuff as well!

#RailNatter Episode 149: Light Rail Does Not Exist (and other #NotAMetro fun) Jan 18, 2023

Show notes

People are still talking about "light railways" as if those actually, meaningfully exist. In this episode, I'll explain why THEY DON'T!

We'll look at why it is useful to avoid daft, meaningless names for types of transport, we'll talk about how unhelpful the Light Railways Act is, and in turn we'll shout at the Germanosphere for propagating the use of names such as "Stadtbahn" and so on... All via the still-working #NotAMetro sorter!

As ever, think up and send in your edge cases to try and break the sorter...

#RailNatter Episode 148: Every* way that the Railways Act 1993 has resulted in today’s mess Jan 11, 2023

Show notes

It's the 30th anniversary year of the Railways Act 1993 - the legal instrument that formally privatised Britain's railway system. In the first of probably quite a few episodes on the subject, we'll be looking at the history of Britain's railways from 1990 to today...

We'll pick out why privatisation happened the way it did, who was responsible for it, how that lined everything up to fail, and how pretty much all of today's problems can be attributed to the mess that was the Railways Act 1993.

If you're an academic, you'll have free access to the paper I've just written on this subject for @IpprOrg here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/f...

#RailNatter Episode 147: European railways and the ”implementation gap” Jan 04, 2023

Show notes

Happy New Year! #RailNatter is kicking off 2023 with a visit from Jon Worth, online communications and policy specialist, who has been blogging and vlogging about the EU and its railways for a long while now...

Together, we'll discuss his experiences through 2022, where his #CrossBorderRail project explored the mess that mainland Europe's railway connections are in... There are problems at both the micro and macro levels, and we'll try to tackle both.

#CrossBorderRail website: https://crossborderrail.trainsforeuro...

Jon's blog: https://jonworth.eu/ Jon's #CrossBorderRail route map: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/...

Jon's #CrossBorderRail crossings map: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/...

Jon's #CrossBorderRail Top 20 map: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/...

#RailNatter Episode 146: An Advent of Oddities Dec 28, 2022

Show notes

Yuletide greetings all! This time, you lovely lot are getting a live show in the midst of the holidays, as we are joined by returning champion Emily Turner from @roundelroundwego for some more festive gluposti...

This time we will be opening the doors of our #RailNatter Advent of Oddities to hear from past versions of ourselves as well as a few chums. Let's see if this works at all - join LIVE and bring your favourite tipple!

#RailNatter Episode 145: A Mostly British History of Concrete Sleepers Dec 21, 2022

Show notes

This week, #RailNatter is diving back into the Deep Lore of Railways, with a proper techy session on the origin of concrete sleepers (starting international, ending British)...

Want to know where they came from, and how they developed? Join us LIVE on Weds/7pm!

#RailNatter Episode 144: Should We Abolish The Treasury? Dec 14, 2022

Show notes

This week's #RailNatter is finally tackling the big question: should we abolish the Treasury? Luckily, Stian Westlake is joining us to attempt to give an answer!

Why should we do it? What would take its place? Is this a daft suggestion, or is there a meaningful, constitutional benefit to obliterating the department that arguably has caused the UK the most damage throughout its history?

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