#Railnatter

This Scottish town is a nightmare | #Railnatter 270

One of the most severely and regularly gridlocked regional bottlenecks in Scotland sits slap bang on the top of Fort William, and in doing so it is throttling the life out of the town and surrounding communities. Plans to fix this are now in development, so in readiness for looking at those, we consider what options are available, and work out how to save the Highlands' biggest town in the process.
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

Railways we desperately need, cancelled in favour of roads | #Railnatter 269

The Department for Transport has published the list of projects that it is progressing, and those it is putting on ice... We take a look at the 50 projects that made it.
See the full list here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/green-light-for-over-50-road-and-rail-upgrades-supporting-over-39000-new-homes-and-42000-jobs
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

How North Wales will demolish car dependency | #Railnatter 268

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

Why the UK economy will continue to fail | #Railnatter 267

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

Russia's railways WERE the best in the world - with Milo Edwards | #Railnatter 266

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

A history of Australia’s railways - with Chris Brownbill | #Railnatter 265

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

Burnham is key to northern high speed rail network | #Railnatter 264

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 cases for and against open access rail operators | #Railnatter 263

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