This week, #RailNatter is joined by returning champion Simon Kendler to talk all things electrification... Where should wires go? When should they go up? Having put a lot of work behind the scenes into RIA North's new Greener Faster Better report, Simon will talk us through what the process was, and we'll talk wider rail policy given everything else that's going on. We'll try and keep this one optimistic! Find Simon's thread here: https://twitter.com/SimonZev/status/1... Download the report here...
Nov 30, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 143
The UK has had another budget - it may, on the face of it, have seemed like a return to the boring nothingness of pre-Boris times, but it actually means increased cuts, reductions in investment, and more overall malaise with zero vision for the future. What does it mean for transport specifically? This week's #RailNatter will pick through the Autumn Statement to see if there's anything to be optimistic about. Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethde...
Nov 23, 2022•57 min•Ep. 142
This week's #RailNatter sees returning champion Dr Kevin Tennent help us tackle one of the big questions in the transport world... Why do people prefer trams (real ones) to buses? Why does fixed infrastructure drive greater modal shift than vehicles on roads only? We'll look at why a "permanent way" is important (and also what it is), but also why it isn't the only variable that gets people out of cars and onto public transport. Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://...
Nov 16, 2022•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 141
This week's #RailNatter sees the return of GUESTS (now the technology is mostly fixed)... We've the pleasure of Tom Haines-Doran's company, talking about his new book "Derailed: How to Fix Britain's Broken Railways" - given the state of the railways, somewhat relevant I'd say! We'll be touching on worker rights, the state of management, fares, money and what on earth the railways are actually for... Not to be missed! Buy Tom's book here: https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Tom-Ha... Enjoyed this? Ple...
Nov 09, 2022•52 min•Ep. 140
RAIB recently published their report into the derailment of an High Speed Train at Dalwhinnie on the Highland Main Line... Thankfully this happened at low speed, but only by luck. This week's #RailNatter digs into the report and sees what we can learn, and whether industry is likely to repeat this calamity again. 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 ht...
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 139
I'm off on US shenanigans right now, so here's a very strange #RailNatter where I meander from York to Mansfield on the train, then drive back again. Why on earth did I do this? You'll have to watch (if you care)... But we'll be covering HS2's eastern leg (again), suburban services, electric cars, Rail Alphabet 2, the Jacobean Style and Robin Hood. A feast, or chaos. Probably both. Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change a...
Oct 26, 2022•38 min•Ep. 138
This week's #RailNatter is talking swing bridges, bascule bridges, sliding bridges... Because we're attempting to provide an exhaustive list of Britain's moveable railway bridges that are (a) still in use and (b) largely in the same form as it was when it functioned, even if it has been welded shut. How many are there? Will I miss any? It's anyone's guess... Join LIVE to find out! Watch @Network Rail 's terrific little video on the Goole (Skelton) Swing Bridge here: https://www.youtube.com/watch...
Oct 19, 2022•52 min•Ep. 137
This week, #RailNatter is dipping into what already feels like ancient history... The Hitachi UK train fleet was grounded by cracking over a year ago, resulting in widespread disruption and the withdrawal of large numbers of trains across the country. The @Office of Rail and Road undertook an investigation into the causes and the required actions - and the report they subsequently published is what we are going to dig into together... Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at ht...
Oct 12, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 136
We're back in the studio for this week's episode, and not a moment too soon... The UK @Labour Party has formally announced that it is retaining its policy of railway nationalisation, which begs a number of questions, first of which has to be "what does this mean?" - so #RailNatter is going to see what Labour might mean, and what they should mean, by rail nationalisation. There'll be a bit of other news to catch up on as well. Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://pat...
Oct 05, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 135
This week's #RailNatter comes to you from the @London Transport Museum - and I'm very pleased to say I'm joined by not one, not two but THREE @Young Rail Professionals head honchos... Why? Well, it's #RailWeek once again, and this time we are getting in ahead of kick-off to talk all things railway industry employment. We'll remind ourselves what Rail Week is all about, we'll look at all of the events happening this year, we'll tackle the enormous "the industry is in turmoil" elephant in the room...
Sep 28, 2022•56 min•Ep. 134
This week we are joined by none other than Justin Roczniak (a.k.a. @donoteat01 from @Well There's Your Problem Podcast ), who will guide us through everything wrong with US railroads and why things have reached breaking point for railroad workers, to the point where the whole US teeters on the brink of a national rail strike. Last time out we looked at what is actually pretty good about US railroads. This time: we'll be doing the opposite. Join #RailNatter LIVE to ask Justin your questions! Enjo...
Sep 21, 2022•3 hr 17 min•Ep. 133
Well, a lot has happened in the last month. A new Prime Minister. A new Secretary of State for Transport. New ministers. And given that our special boy, Grant Shapps, made Great British Railways his own personal mission, is anybody else going to want to deliver it? The current state of the UK also has wider implications on railways, too... The cost of living crisis is genuinely unprecedented, and the impact is going to be crippling, even with Liz Truss's announced bolstering of the energy indust...
Sep 14, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 132
Britain's first modern high speed line may have been the Selby Diversion. Its first 300km/h line may have been High Speed 1. But the first inter-city railway that embodied the design elements we see of high speed lines today was - arguably - the Great Western Railway. 130 years after its opening it also became Britain's first 200km/h railway. It may have been over-engineered by Brunel, but this was very much in the favour of the engineers of the 1970s when they upgraded much of the GWR for 125mp...
Sep 07, 2022•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 131
Jon Stone and I are joining the dots in this week's #RailNatter ... Where on our side of Europe would really benefit from a new high speed link? We trip our way across from Sweden to Spain, from Swindon to Serbia in search of the answers. This is most certainly an incomplete list. But the real challenges aren't perhaps the physical infrastructure, but the political unimaginativeness of our leaders. Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or thr...
Aug 31, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 130
This week's #RailNatter is answering the ultimate (?) question - are Stadler's FLIRTs Britain's best train? Joining me on this quest shall be friend of the show Simon Kendler, who shall guide you and me on an odyssey into the east... Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis . Merch is at https://masquette.co.uk/collections/r... . Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/d...
Aug 24, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 129
Much has been happening in the world of transport, so it's time to pause, take stock and catch up with current happenings again... We'll be talking about strikes quite a bit, but there's plenty else to flick through, including the UK's broader economic outlook, the energy crisis and the impacts of the ongoing heatwave. Join #RailNatter live to get involved! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.m...
Aug 17, 2022•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 128
It's a #RailNatter page-turn again - and we're sinking our metaphorical teeth into the Transport Select Committee's Integrated Rail Plan (a.k.a. #RailBetrayal) report... It's the one I appeared in Parliament for! We'll dig into the detail, but it summarised by saying that there was little evidence of valid assessment in IRP, that government should prepare for their cuts to be reversed, that journey time benefits were not achievable and that there was not enough focus on capacity. In other words,...
Aug 10, 2022•1 hr 25 min•Ep. 127
It's been over two years since we've done a proper alternative history episode (Episode 7 was on what might have happened if the APT had made it) so for Episode 125 it's only right that we look to the InterCity 125 (a.k.a. the High Speed Diesel Train) and have a think about what might have happened if it had simply never come into existence... What might have changed? Would the railway renaissance that came about in the 1980s never have come to being without them? Might we see a very different-l...
Aug 03, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 126
For quite a long time, Scandinavia has been a quiet hub of railway modernity - indeed, Sweden had the most per-kilometre electrification in the world for a number of years. Denmark has constructed enormous rail infrastructure in recent years, and on average trains across the region are pretty young. X2000s and various excellent metro systems are a delight to behold. To talk about all of this good stuff, and perhaps dig into what we can learn from our Scandi pals, we've the pleasure of being join...
Jul 27, 2022•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 125
Well I am very pleased to say that this week, we are joined in #RailNatter towers by podcaster extraordinaire Alice Caldwell-Kelly (famed for @Trashfuture Podcast , @Well There's Your Problem Podcast and Kill James Bond)! Alice and I will be going on a ferroequinohorological odyssey through time (quite literally) to see how small clocks and the operation of the railways are interlinked - and we'll also be gawking at some very fetching hand-held rail timepieces... Pocket watches and wristwatches ...
Jul 20, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 124
Well a lot has happened in the world since we last did a news segment, so it's another general news catch-up for this week's #RailNatter... We'll focus in on Shapps' signalling tweet from a couple of weeks back, where he made a hash of just about every sentence he was fed - as well as looking at the horror show of the Tory leadership contest if our special boy Grant Shapps is the one who has the best stance on human rights. Also, as promised last week, we'll do the Very Light Rail (both rural an...
Jul 13, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 123
It's a question you've all been asking for a while - what is VLR, and is it any good? Well, tonight's #RailNatter will hopefully answer that question! I was at the first (?) VLR "conference" a few weeks ago, plus you might have noticed that I omitted the Revolution VLR tour that I did at Rail Live for last week's episode... Well, all of this is to be combined into this week's episode, so there should be a bit of a feast for you all! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at http...
Jul 06, 2022•42 min•Ep. 122
It's Rail Live 2022 - and so I'm sending you another pre-recorded #RailNatter from the past! Rather than running about like a headless chicken as I did last year, this time I'm running about like a headless chicken *with a plan* - we'll split the episode into four segments - exhibits, plant, trains and people - and have an explore accordingly! There'll also be a couple of shorter videos to follow this one, including some nice timelapses of setup day... Trashfuture rail strikes episode here for y...
Jun 29, 2022•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 121
STRIKES! Solidarity to all RMT rail workers out on strike right now... I'm at Rail Live today, so I've pre-recorded this week's #RailNatter as a sort of Baby's First Strike History. Join in the chat in any case to add your thoughts and perhaps pick up anything I've missed... Live(ish) at 7pm on Wednesday! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis . Merch is at https://masquette.co.uk/...
Jun 22, 2022•48 min•Ep. 120
This week we have the honour and pleasure of being joined by Alexandra Rose ( @bigmoodenergy ) to talk about a long list of rather goody gadgetbahns from the not-so-distant US past... We may see all shapes, we may see all sizes, but will we find any that are actually useful? Tune in LIVE on Wednesday at 7pm to find out! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis . Merch is at https://m...
Jun 15, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 119
This week's #RailNatter is diving back into the messy world of categorising urban transport systems... And I think I've cracked it! Gone shall be "light rail", "rapid transit", "personal rapid transit", "bus rapid transit", "stadtbahn" and all the rest... In shall arrive a newer, simpler series of names that make more sense and will have actual, consistent meanings. Join LIVE at 7pm on Wednesday to send me a pile of transport systems to see if the categoriser breaks immediately! Enjoyed this? Pl...
Jun 08, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 118
For some reason, our old #RailNatter on the Welsh railway network went viral earlier this year, so I thought I'd take the chance to dig into the culmination of that episode and dive into what a north-south main line for Wales might look like... If you like maps, alignment design, deciding where to put a railway, and understanding the bigger picture on railway proposals, then this is the episode for you! Also, there will be: maps galore, costings, timings, politics, opportunities and challenges. ...
Jun 01, 2022•1 hr 36 min•Ep. 117
In a change to the published schedule, #RailNatter is heading to London because Crossrail (known by some as the Elizabeth line line) has just opened and we all need to talk about it... Not least that it (a) is not a Tube line and (b) has made a right mess of an already over-stressed Tube map. We'll be talking about how to properly classify London's transport networks, why it may or may not be important to do so, and how fixing the Tube map is important and also almost impossible. Join LIVE at 7p...
May 25, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 116
This week's #RailNatter should be a fun one... We are looking at what branding Britain's railways should have in a post-GBR world. Should everything be uniform, devolution be damned? Or do we know better... Join LIVE to have your say! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis . Merch is at https://masquette.co.uk/collections/r... . Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/...
May 18, 2022•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 115
CRASHWORTHINESS AND CONCLUSIONS The RAIB report from the Carmont rail crash has been released, and just as we worked our way through the interim report, this week's #RailNatter is taking a detailed look at the final report. What exactly happened that fateful day? What can we learn? What should we do to avoid it happening again? This is the fourth and final episode of this miniseries, and will look primarily at the crashworthiness of the High Speed Train and how it turned a significant derailment...
May 11, 2022•1 hr 57 min•Ep. 114
