#Railnatter

Well, as predicted by me in 2018, and then essentially confirmed as inevitable two years ago on release of the Integrated Rail Plan, this Conservative government of Hunt, Sunak and Harper have cancelled HS2, leaving the most expensive section between London and Birmingham as a rump to be picked at by Treasury vampires until it is impossible to deliver the full scheme. There's so much to talk about...

We are joined by the founder and CEO of Tended, Leo Scott Smith, to talk about how you turn an idea into a solution that can save lives... And we'll talk a bit about how the railway forms the perfect filter to sort pointless from purposeful tech. Geofencing is used pretty widely these days, but protecting staff on track is a particularly tricky and critical application - and this is where Tended c...

In what might prove to be another cornerstone episode of #RailNatter, Dr Alex Chapman from  @theneweconomics  discusses his research into the economic benefits of the aviation industry to the UK... Or rather the fact that there aren't any. Seriously - this is fascinating stuff and lays bare the ideology behind the disproportionate subsidy of the airline industry in the UK and further afield... All...

Join @MrTimDunn and me as we dash around the @NatRailwayMuseum 's new gallery - Wonderlab - in the only way we both know how... Chaotically! We have the most tremendous fun whizzing around what I think is likely to be my second favourite space in the NRM after the warehouse/North Shed, BECAUSE THIS SPACE IS SO GOOD (particularly for me as an infrastructure person)! Want to know what it is all abou...

It's the finale of our three-part odyssey through the former Yugoslavia, following one of the world's most scenic railways from Belgrade in present-day Serbia to Bar in present-day Montenegro. We've reached the highest point of the line, and only have a limited length of line to get back down to sea level... And there are a few feats of spectacular engineering required to get us there! Enjoyed thi...

Leo Murray has finally joined us to talk about the latest invasion of car infrastructure onto our pavements - that's right, electric vehicle charging points are the latest menace we are having to negotiate. But given we do actually need these things to be installed, how do we go about it? What's the scale of the problem? And what does "good" look like? Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #...

It's the second of a three-part odyssey through the former Yugoslavia, following one of the world's most scenic railways from Belgrade in present-day Serbia to Bar in present-day Montenegro. We're truly nestled in the heart of the mountains in western Serbia at this point, and indeed we take a wee trip into Bosnia before eventually ending up in Montenegro... This time we journey from Užice to Kola...

I'm very pleased this week to have been joined by Hannah Lawrence from Stay Grounded, talking about the legitimacy of flying, the inequality of flying, and campaigning against the worst excesses of aviation. There will be infographics galore! It's a great episode! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://pay...

It's the first of a three-part odyssey through the former Yugoslavia, following one of the world's most scenic railways from Belgrade in present-day Serbia to Bar in present-day Montenegro. This is the first three hours of the trip, distilled down by an enormous factor into a... one hour episode. We get from Belgrade to Užice. Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patr...

This week, we're joined by two of the Dovetail Games team to talk all things train simulation... Matt Peddlesden (executive producer) and Joseph Rogers (brand manager for Train Sim World, WSR volunteer) will take us on an odyssey of discovery on how you research, develop and expand train simulation games! Join me and the Dovetail Games crew LIVE on Wednesday at 7pm to ask your questions! Enjoyed t...

HS2 has, once again, been in the news, now that the Infrastructure Projects Authority (not beer related) has said the project may be unachievable, which won't be news to viewers of course. Anyway, government has responded to the Transport Select Committee's IRP report, and several Yorkshire councils have published their proposals for getting HS2 trains up to Leeds and the North East. Basically, a...

This week #RailNatter is joined by the managing director of ScotRail - or rather, of Scotland's Railway, the alliance of organisations that run rail services in Scotland. That's right - Alex Hynes is joining us to talk about the direction that Scotland's railways are going in, balancing the needs of policymakers and operations, and what exactly the current structure of Scottish railway operations...

It's a news episode, and there's so much to catch up on... more HS2 mess, bad on-demand buses, the continuing demise of Translohr, the dreadful Odisha train crash in India, diminishing pay across the GB rail industry, and so much more. Join LIVE on Wednesday at 7pm. Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://p...

We've the delight this week of being joined by Emily Turner of  @roundelroundwego  to talk about railway and transport fandom, what it is, how some of its tropes can be off-putting, and how making it more inclusive is a bonus for everyone involved... Including industry itself. Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me vi...

In a very last minute change to the schedule, we are in fact going to do a good old fashioned #RailNatter Q&A on today's horrible news about ticket office closures. Get your ragey questions ready and join the show LIVE at 7pm to get stuck in! Useful RMT campaign page with all the various consultation links: https://www.rmt.org.uk/campaigns/rail/save-ticket-offices/ Enjoyed this? Please do cons...

This week we are joined by Juliet Phillips from E3G to talk about how hydrogen has been disrupting the home heating market... and not for the better. It's a sorry tale that we in transportation should pay close attention to. Join LIVE 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/ga...

It's a fun one, and some engineering history for you all... 120 years ago, give or take a few days, the patent was placed for what would become the modern windscreen wiper, a vital safety device that we all take for granted. But how many of them can I find in the  @NatRailwayMuseum  ? Why do we know of so few women inventors? Why do I always end up in the Warehouse? All questions I'll attempt to t...

In sad news, a vital facility for plugging the UK rail skills gap has been abandoned to rot... But why? We'll talk about how the college came about, its poor management from the off, the non-existent strategic planning that led to its demise, and will remind ourselves of what we've lost. Join LIVE at 7pm on Wednesday! Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://patreon.com/g...

This week we are talking all things mobility and mining, and we've the absolute pleasure of being joined by Thea Riofrancos, Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College. With her research being focused on resource extraction, renewable energy, climate change, green technology and social movements, she's the perfect person to explain why building our transport future around resou...

Okay, so we won't just be talking about Elon Musk fumbling the bag... It's a news episode and there's plenty to catch up on! 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 .

Our very special pilgrimage site of Colton Junction suffered a catastrophic (but all too common) failure this week, and so it seems like a good chance to talk about crossing noses, what they are, why they fail and how we can stop them failing. May or may not include gratuitous imagery of Colton Junction's fabulous equal splits. Enjoyed this? Please do consider supporting #RailNatter at https://pat...

This week we are looking at two rail crashes, one at Pitlochry in Scotland and another at Pershore in Worcestershire, that took place in the 1980s. Thankfully, neither involved serious injuries, but both incidents can teach us a few things, despite having been mostly forgotten... Including the unforeseen side-effects of introducing new bits into dynamic engineering systems like railways. Enjoyed t...

This week's #RailNatter is a return to Gerrards Cross and all the shenanigans that led a tunnel with a Tesco on it to collapse onto a live railway... Why did the HSE not publish their original report? Well, thanks to an intrepid fan of the show, we've finally got hold of it! We'll be lawyering up as we flick through the pages of the draft report and stare in horror and the engineering negligence t...

It's an age-old question... A rail bridge is out, only the rails are left, so do you take the train fast or slow over the bridge? There's a lot to think about: gravity, dynamics, waves, stiffness, materials, energy, vibrations... All combine to give us the answer. But what is it? It's slow - you obviously drive slowly over the dang bridge! Anyway, hopefully this will explain why! Enjoyed this? Ple...

Last week, the TUC published their report "Public transport fit for the climate emergency" and, in classic #RailNatter style, we are going to sift through it page by page! Having only really flicked through it up to this point, this report appears to dig deeper into my "rail capacity needs to double by 2050" figure and comes out showing this looks to actually be an underestimate. Union researchers...