#Railnatter

It's the 30th anniversary year of the Railways Act 1993 - the legal instrument that formally privatised Britain's railway system. In the first of probably quite a few episodes on the subject, we'll be looking at the history of Britain's railways from 1990 to today...

We'll pick out why privatisation happened the way it did, who was responsible for it, how that lined everything up to fail, and how pretty much all of today's problems can be attributed to the mess that was the Railways Act 1993.

If you're an academic, you'll have free access to the paper I've just written on this subject for @IpprOrg here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/f...

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 https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

Happy New Year! #RailNatter is kicking off 2023 with a visit from Jon Worth, online communications and policy specialist, who has been blogging and vlogging about the EU and its railways for a long while now...

Together, we'll discuss his experiences through 2022, where his #CrossBorderRail project explored the mess that mainland Europe's railway connections are in... There are problems at both the micro and macro levels, and we'll try to tackle both.

#CrossBorderRail website: https://crossborderrail.trainsforeuro...

Jon's blog: https://jonworth.eu/ Jon's #CrossBorderRail route map: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/...

Jon's #CrossBorderRail crossings map: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/...

Jon's #CrossBorderRail Top 20 map: https://umap.openstreetmap.fr/en/map/...

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 https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

Yuletide greetings all! This time, you lovely lot are getting a live show in the midst of the holidays, as we are joined by returning champion Emily Turner from @roundelroundwego for some more festive gluposti...

This time we will be opening the doors of our #RailNatter Advent of Oddities to hear from past versions of ourselves as well as a few chums. Let's see if this works at all - join LIVE and bring your favourite tipple!

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 https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

This week, #RailNatter is diving back into the Deep Lore of Railways, with a proper techy session on the origin of concrete sleepers (starting international, ending British)...

Want to know where they came from, and how they developed? Join us LIVE on Weds/7pm!

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 https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

This week's #RailNatter is finally tackling the big question: should we abolish the Treasury? Luckily, Stian Westlake is joining us to attempt to give an answer!

Why should we do it? What would take its place? Is this a daft suggestion, or is there a meaningful, constitutional benefit to obliterating the department that arguably has caused the UK the most damage throughout its history?

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 https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

Well, he only went and did it. The USA's "most labor friendly president" has just used executive legislation to break a strike and ensure rail workers continue to be horrendously exploited until they just leave the industry.

There's also a lot of other stuff going on, some good, some bad. We'll see what the new Secretary of State for Transport (Mark Harper) is all about. We'll also see how easily buses could be made free in the UK.

Watch the @BadFaithPodcast episode I refer to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyaCB...

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 https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

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: https://www.riagb.org.uk/RIA/Newsroom...

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 https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

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/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

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://patreon.com/garethdennis or throw loose change at me via https://paypal.me/garethdennis. Join in the discussion at https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.

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? 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 https://garethdennis.co.uk/discord.