#Railnatter

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The PWI has to change its name | #Railnatter 283 Nov 19, 2025

Show notes

It's time for the PWI (the Permanent Way Institution) - my beloved professional institution, the best of the lot, and one I'm immensely proud of - to change its name. And you can make it happen.

Find out more at: https://www.thepwi.org/about/our-next-chapter

Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://merch.railnatter.uk. Join in the discussion at https://discord.railnatter.uk. You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

The man who destroyed Britain's buses | #Railnatter 282 Nov 12, 2025

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We need a laugh (?) so this week we are going through a report written by Professor John Hibbs for the IEA (the bad one) nearly twenty years ago, and twenty years after Britain's buses were deregulated outside of London and proceeded to be completely decimated, where they weren't engaging in outright urban combat.

In its pages, we see why he and the IEA maniacs think that deregulation was great, and why moving away from it would be a disaster. As the architect of deregulation, Hibbs was (RIP) a dangerous, dogmatic extremist who has caused untold misery to millions, but reading this will be extremely funny because what he has written is extremely and obviously stupid and his elevation makes a mockery of academic transport "science". Hahahaha (cries).

Everything you need to know about the Railways Bill | #Railnatter 281 Nov 05, 2025

Show notes

Yesterday, the UK Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander deposited the Railways Bill in the House of Commons. Does this actually mean anything? Not yet, not least as quite a lot of important stuff about the future of Britain's railways isn't in this document at all, but it does help clarify the direction of travel, if not the destination.

The real reason HS2 died | #Railnatter 280 Oct 29, 2025

Show notes

Back in June the Stewart Review suggested a series of reasons why Britain's embryonic domestic high speed railway line was tripping over its shoelaces. Today, we dig into that report, with the usual useful context on its author and its subject matter.

British airports that have got to go | #Railnatter 279 Oct 22, 2025

Show notes

You've been asking for this one for a long time - YES, the airports episode is finally here! Which of the UK's 32 mainland airports (including on the island of Ireland) deserve to survive into the 2040s, and which must CLOSE? Tune in to find out!

The city that’s choking itself to death | #Railnatter 278 Oct 15, 2025

Show notes

A city I love and have travelled to many times for a decade now - Belgrade is a melting pot of culture, art and architecture, food and fun. And yet it is being poisoned by corruption, greed and car dominance. The result is a dying city - and a warning to the UK, given our cities are taking exactly the same trajectory.

(don't worry about the hallelujah chorus after the Graun extract slides)

How British Rail gave us the USA’s newest high speed train | #Railnatter 277 Oct 08, 2025

Show notes

Following a wee hiatus from host knackeredness syndrome, we're back! And we're returning to our roots by talking all about British Rail's Advanced Passenger Train, and the corporate nonsense that took APT's tilting technology via about a dozen legal entities to slap it straight into the replacement Acela fleet this year! We also answer the question: was the Pendolino just the APT sold back to us?

The five reasons UK transport fails disabled people | #Railnatter 276 Sep 17, 2025

Show notes

In the second of our episodes focusing on disabled travel, we look at NCAT's latest report on the overall picture for accessible transport in the UK. It's not a rosy picture.

This campaign made railways better for everyone | #Railnatter 275 Sep 10, 2025

Show notes

With ScotRail announcing that their new fleet procurement will include level "access" as well as a key report being published on progress with transport accessibility, it's the right time to revisit Episode 31 and see what progress has been made - and it is actually good news!

Disability ARK links here: https://linktr.ee/disabilityark

10 new railways to fix Devon and Cornwall | #Railnatter 274 Sep 03, 2025

Show notes

We're back! And we're doing some classic network analysis, this time for Devon and Cornwall. I knew this one would be hard, but making this network make sense is extremely tricky! In any case, we'll list off 10 railway projects the region needs, think about why and what they might look like in more detail.

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