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#Railnatter — Technology
#Railnatter

The world’s leading independent railway podcast. Join award-winning rail engineer Gareth Dennis and many guests talking about all things TRAINS and TRANSPORT. #Railnatter goes out LIVE every Wednesday at 8pm, UK time, with the audio podcast following on all common platforms.

Copyright: © 2023 Gareth Dennis

Latest Episodes:

The cases for and against open access rail operators | #Railnatter 263 May 28, 2025

Show notes

The role of open access operations - you know: Hull Trains, Grand Central, Lumo, Go-Op - is one I've been dancing around in #Railnatter for a long while, but I'm hoping tonight to take a reasonably exhaustive look at the cases for and against...

We'll be looking at two documents to do this: firstly, First Group's January 2025 paper making their case in favour of open access, and secondly the recently leaked memo looking at the financial cost to the incumbent operator of open access services on the East Coast main line.

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.

You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

Driverless Cars Are Pointless - with Victoria Scott | #Railnatter 262 May 21, 2025

Show notes

The wonderful, erudite and incisive Victoria Scott - that's right, my @wtyppod nemesis - is joining us this week for what will I already know will be one of our all-time greats. Why are driverless cars still being pushed onto an unwilling public, three-quarters of a century after the first trials? What's the real reason for adding a near-literal tonne of sensors and high technology to the simple automobile? Why will driverless cars never functionally exist?

All questions Victoria is the perfect guest to answer for us. I'm excited!

Head to Victoria's website here: https://www.vantimevictoria.com/

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.

You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

How not to do feasibility studies | #Railnatter 261 May 14, 2025

Show notes

We're looking at the proposals for a new line connecting the North Wales Main Line and the Cambrian Coast Line between Bangor and Afon Wen... Are the plans any good? Should they go ahead even if the correct route for a north-south Welsh mainline is at the other side of the country?

Way back in Episode 57 we analysed where any future north-south Welsh railway needed to be, and we fleshed those plans out into the Dragon Line/Llinell Y Ddraig in Episode 116. Let's see how this report aligns with that - or doesn't.

Download the report here: https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2025-02/re-opening-the-bangor-to-afon-wen-rail-line-feasibility-study.pdf

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.

You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

Starline's high speed rail "plans" for Europe | #Railnatter 260 May 07, 2025

Show notes

In the first of another two-parter, we look at some rather meaningless and silly plans for a high speed rail network that I can't quite categorise between "absolutely nothing" or "actively damaging". Join me LIVE to see if we can work it out together!

Read the plans here: https://21st-europe.com/blueprints/starline

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.

You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

Labour are out of ideas already | #Railnatter 259 Apr 30, 2025

Show notes

It's a news episode! And as ever we've got loads to catch up on, not least Labour and the Prime Minister's supine desperation in using precisely the same language as the Conservatives by virtue signalling to car drivers as a distinct class of their own. It's grim to see.

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.

You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

Data, maps and how to use them (with Will Deakin) | #Railnatter 258 Apr 23, 2025

Show notes

Ever wondered how you develop and deploy a new timetable? Or how to map flows of humans across regions, countries and continents? Well this is the primer on all of that, and crucially why we do it and what the pitfalls are...

Friend of the show Will Deakin joins us to talk about temporal data, spatial data, big data and having fun with it in what I know will be the first of a few return episodes on this subject!

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.

You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

Designing Glasgow a metro system | #Railnatter 257 Apr 16, 2025

Show notes

It's the second half of the two-parter you all wanted in one go last week! Yes - this time we get to the good stuff. Maps. And using them to see what a realistic but bold modern metro system for Scotland's largest city could look like.

Plus we might mention Glasgow Airport again since that got everyone very excited.

See the piece I wrote about this: https://www.glasgowbell.co.uk/a-blueprint-for-glasgows-rail/

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.

You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

Clyde Metro? Glasgow must think bigger | #Railnatter 256 Apr 09, 2025

Show notes

I've been promising this one for a while - what should Glasgow be doing about its urban mobility? What about the Glasgow Subway? Crossing the Clyde? What about the airport? Well, the way to solve all of this is with MAPS and that's what we will be doing!

See the piece I wrote about this: https://www.glasgowbell.co.uk/a-blueprint-for-glasgows-rail/

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.

You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

#Railnatter Episode 255: Goodbye USAID, hello China (and much more railway geopolitics) Mar 26, 2025

Show notes

Whilst there's plenty of local news for us to pick through, I wanted to focus this week's episode on how railways are becoming sharply relevant in the rise and fall of national and international powers...

Whether it's the railway expansion intentions of USAID versus China in south central Africa, increasingly heated riots in Greece over the Tempi rail disaster (an episode for itself soon) or the now-inevitable demise of Vučić in Serbia following the Novi Sad station collapse in Serbia - railways are becoming a battleground for the future.

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.

You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

#Railnatter Episode 254: Urban transport in Dubai (and what’s stupid about a lot of it) Mar 19, 2025

Show notes

At the World Government Summit in early 2025, Dubai's city leaders revealed the latest nonsense they were putting their mobility hopes and dreams into... And it is a real hotch-potch of junk ranging from obviously stupid to mostly pointless to outright fascist. So let's get the #NotAMetro sorter out and sift through them!

Read Nicole's great retort to it all: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicolekobie/2025/02/24/flying-boats-weird-trams-and-more-from-dubais-future-transit-trials/

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.

You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

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