#Railnatter

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

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

#Railnatter Episode 253: The (draft) Mid Wales Regional Transport Plan

Given it's our fifth anniversary, how better to celebrate than to look at and think about rural Welsh transport and what to do about it? Cue the music!
Access the documentation here: https://www.growingmid.wales/article/10136/Mid-Wales-Transportation
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 252: What we must learn from the Grenfell Tower disaster (2)

Back in Episode 240 we looked in detail at the corruption, callousness and incompetence that led to the deaths of seventy people in the fire in Grenfell Tower in 2017. Tonight, we are joined by fire engineer and researcher Alastair Temple to look at what the inquiry into the disaster recommends to avoid it ever happening again.
Find Alastair Temple's portfolio: https://alastairtemple.co.uk/
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 251: The Future of Cities (keeping an eye on urban trends)

Cities are extremely important, despite only one of them getting much meaningful attention in the UK. Network Rail and WPI Economics have pulled together a report looking at cities and the trends that are defining their futures right now, including post-COVID behavioural changes, and it piqued my interest. Let's take a look together in the usual way!
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 250: The little station that defeated Westminster

To celebrate our reaching 250 episodes, I thought I'd tell the tale of the little railway station that rebelled against Westminster's swinging axe and survived for us all to enjoy today...
Located in a stunning spot on the railway line from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, Duncraig station sees only around 500 passengers a year hopping on or off trains at its diminutive halt. But it is a unique, beautiful and helpful little station, and the story of its survival holds lessons for us all. So let's tell it!
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 249: Heathrow's Third Runway and other economic disasters

Well, they did it. Where the Conservatives blocked it from being built, Labour have in fact waved it through, in a move that will set back both the UK's environmental and economic targets by decades. We'll talk a bit about this decision, why it is really bad, and of course dig into a few months of other news as well. And we have the delight of being joined by Rob from Podcasting Is Praxis, helping halve/double the despair...
Go and find Praxiscast: https://praxiscast.podbean.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

#Railnatter Episode 248: What should the Scottish railway map look like? 2

Way back in Episode 65 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2v846_jqwc), we took a network development look at the Scottish railway map, but we didn't really take a material look at what the missing bits really were... Tonight, we fix that!
We look at Scotland's missing railway links that will need to be plugged for the future economy the Scottish Government keep talking about to materialise. We look beyond the approach we considered in the previous episode to see how missing links call on other demands than pure population development. And! We! Look! At! Maps!
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 247: A look at Scotland's draft Islands Connectivity Review

In the first of a couple of Scotland episodes, we're thinking about ISLANDS and how the hell to get to them in a way that's sustainable by all definitions of the term...
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