#Railnatter

Transport for Wales recently released their plan for a public transport network for North Wales, and it is actually very good. We'll take a look, and pick out why Westminster is incapable of delivering this sort of strategic thinking. 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

A couple of major things to cover this week that will set the direction of the UK economy for... a bit. Until this government changes their mind again. Those are: the new Industrial Strategy, and the Comprehensive Spending Review from earlier this month. Both talking about where money will - or indeed will not - be spent to make the country work better. And we are taking a closer look. Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/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

Readers of The Book will know that, pre-hot war (we'll get there), Russia's railways were ranked the best in the world by modal share. But how? And what does this look like? Who better to join us than the UK's official* vibes ambassador to Russia, Milo Edwards? Nobody, that's who. Milo lifts the lid on his experiences as we work out what's good, bad and weird about Russia's railways. Milo's website is here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/ Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/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

Chris Brownbill (https://railmaps.com.au/) joins us this week to take us on a quick jaunt through the history of Australia's railways - in the process busting a few myths, talking about a major tragedy and helping explain how the Aussie railways nearly beat Japan on the Top Twenty national railway list... Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/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

This week we are looking at the proposals of the Liverpool-Manchester Railway Board, the collective of combined and local authorities across the north west of England wanting to finish off the Manchester bits of HS2 as well as the western end of whatever the trans-Pennine high speed line is called today. We'll also be talking about Great British Railways and its latest hint at branding in our new, as-yet unnamed back-end segment! Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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