Podcasts

#RailNatter

Join railway engineer and writer Gareth Dennis plus a wide range of guests on his semi-topical weekly talk show about all things rail...

All Aboard

Our old podcast decicated to transport, data, and innovation. Hosted by Neil McClure.

Episode 157: Why does the UK find it so hard to integrate transport modes?

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 19:00:00 +0000

We talk about it a lot, but what is "integrated transport" when it isn't just a meaningless buzzword? Why is the UK so bad at doing it? Transport researcher Martha Lauren joins us to talk about this history of truly integrated transport, including h...

Episode 156: What’s happening at the National Railway Museum?

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 19:00:00 +0000

The @NatRailwayMuseum in York is hallowed ground for me and is loved by nearly a million visitors a year, but it has always struggled with being more of a collection than a museum. Vision 2025 will be a great leap forwards in the ability of the muse...

Episode 155: Perfection and imperfection on the Underground

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 19:00:00 +0000

After nearly three years, Luke Agbaimoni returns to #RailNatter to talk about his second book, "London Underground Symmetry & Imperfections". Once again, he's given us a tease of some of the photographs we can find in the book, and we walk and talk o...

Episode 154: An Odyssey of Historical Curiosity

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 19:00:00 +0000

This week, I'm delighted to be joined by Bob Gwynne, the National Railway Museum's associate curator, on an odyssey of historical curiosity, picking out questions from our past historical #RailNatter episodes (which you can find in the relevant playl...

Episode 153: High Speed 2 - taking a look inside a tunnel boring machine

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Precisely one year ago, a few folks and I had the delight of a tour inside one of HS2's tunnel boring machines as it scoured its way underneath Long Itchington Wood in Warwickshire... And what a spectacular experience it was! Hopefully I'll capture ...

Episode 152: How Britain’s post-war intercity rail network should have looked

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 19:00:00 +0000

After WW2 and nationalisation, Britain's railway operations essentially assumed their 1923 structure and shape, and this may not have led to the best outcomes... When it came to infrastructure, each company may have had their main line, but were thes...

Episode 151: How does modal shift work?

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 19:00:00 +0000

I talk about it a lot, but what is modal shift, how does it work, and why is it both a critical tool and a critical outcome of enhancing and expanding public transport? We'll be page-turning Greengauge21's report on the subject, mostly covering HS2 ...

Episode 150: Things Are Going Just Great

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Returning champion Bonnie Price is joining us to go through The News, since quite a bit has been happening since the holidays. Government data obfuscation, strikes, European shenanigans... Bonnie and I will chew through it and see if there's some lig...

Episode 149: Light Rail Does Not Exist (and other #NotAMetro fun)

Wed, 18 Jan 2023 19:00:00 +0000

People are still talking about "light railways" as if those actually, meaningfully exist. In this episode, I'll explain why THEY DON'T! We'll look at why it is useful to avoid daft, meaningless names for types of transport, we'll talk about how unhe...