#Railnatter

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

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

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

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

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

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