Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
Tom Forth Profile picture
@thomasforth
Nov 22, 2022 • 8 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
"Leeds has no room for a tram" is a great new take. Here's Leeds' tram network in 1959.
And now I'm on a website called "Timetable World" looking at tram timetables.
This is pretty much how that Tory MP lost his job isn't it?
Would like to try Phosferrade tbh.
The adverts are ace. (except the racist one, which I've skipped over, because it was very "of its time" and we don't need that today).
Since it's @jimmoran's route --- here's Corn Exchange to Meanwood by tram. In 1951 that was a service every five minutes at peak times, it was timetabled to take 16 minutes, ran from 5am to 11pm. Today the journey by bus takes much longer (27 minutes) and runs a third as often.
@jimmoran I'm going to digitise the 1951 Leeds tram timetable aren't I? #FML
It's proper nuts reading these times. In 1951 on a tram,
Corn Exchange to Elland Road? 14 minutes.
Corn Exchange to Gipton? 16 minutes.
Headingley? 19 minutes.
Kirkstall Abbey? 19 minutes.
Whingate? 20 minutes.
Moortown? 21 minutes.
Crossgates? 22 minutes.
Middleton? 24 minutes.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Tom Forth

Tom Forth Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @thomasforth

Tom Forth Profile picture
May 22
I've written about the successes and failures of Scottish devolution and why it's so popular among Scots. tomforth.co.uk/unreasonablesu…
TLDR: it's the economy, stupid. Scotland has outperformed England's since devolution. The overperformance is particularly large in Scottish cities, which have broken out of the productivity trap English cities remain trapped in. Image
When devolution came into force, Scotland's economy was the same strength as the West Midlands. It has since grown twice as fast and overtaken East England. The underperformance of the West Midlands vs. Scotland is two to four Brexits in scale, but England doesn't seem to care. Image
Read 5 tweets
Tom Forth Profile picture
Apr 30
Lots of other good points. Wind farms, free tuition, democracy, etc... but I still think it's the economics that matters most. If Scotland's economy with devolution had performed as badly as Yorkshire's or the West Midlands I think there'd be calls to undo it.
Of course Scots don't track GDP numbers. But a society can feel it's prosperity. Scots have friends, family, and work in places like Newcastle, Sunderland, Leeds, Bradford, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton. They can feel their relative prosperity and success since devolution.
If Scotland's success is because of fiscal transfers then,... that's a reason to support a mechanism that retains those transfers.
.
But North England and the West Midlands are much bigger recipients of transfers within the UK. Image
Read 5 tweets
Tom Forth Profile picture
Mar 31
That Indian railway electrification number seems to check out. Coloured = electrified. Black = not electrified.
Image
Image
Here's the part of Europe with similar population density to North England vs. North England.
Image
Image
Denmark used to be the country that propped up the UK on rail electrification lists. Then they had a disastrous attempt to buy new diesel trains and realised that electrification was the sensible option. So they,... just did it. Two thirds done now. uk.bane.dk/en/Projects/El…
Read 5 tweets
Tom Forth Profile picture
Feb 19
"Birmingham City Council has confirmed it will raise council tax by 21% over the next two years as part of £300m budget savings.

Street lights are to be dimmed, waste collections are to become fortnightly, while burial costs will increase."

Ooooof. bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan…
It's the big cuts to social care that'll really cause problems. Probably a lot of costs passed on to the NHS. But it was dimming the streetlights that I think summed up the desperation of it. So good work on the BBC for that write up I reckon.
It's good that Birmingham has been allowed exceptionally by the UK government to put up council tax by that much. Otherwise the cuts would be even deeper. And it would be good if Birmingham had more taxes it could raise, and by more, under local democratic control. But,...
Read 26 tweets
Tom Forth Profile picture
Nov 20, 2023
I'd thought about getting this graph for myself the other day when I was reading about UK public sector productivity. I kept on expecting it would appear but it didn't. I couldn't be bothered. But now Julian's done it and thus I get it for zero effort. Which is high productivity!
I share Julian's caution around definitions of public sector productivity. Contributing (in a tiny way, via measurements of teacher-assessments of how much kids were learning through online lessons) to some of the education data over Covid deepened that. It is often very hard.
But it being often very hard does sadly open the door for people to claim that it's always nearly-impossible. That's wrong. See recent tweets by @sib313 for more details on how measuring NHS productivity is hard, but probably not as hard as made out in the excuses made.
Read 19 tweets
Tom Forth Profile picture
Nov 2, 2023
Fine. I'll do the hard arguing. The UK state has too much analytical capacity. And it gets bad outputs from it because it chooses to do the wrong type of analysis which is therefore too hard. And now I'll give a very specific example.
Around 2017 I started tracking every bus and tram on a high frequency route in Birmingham and used this data to calculate the effective size of the city by public transport at different times of the day. Still to the best of my knowledge, I was first. tomforth.co.uk/birminghamisas…
Image
Of course no innovation happens in a vacuum and transport researchers have done similar work (I know about quite a lot of this). We presented the work in Oxford in 2018 and asked around whether anyone had ever seen similar analysis. And people said no. So it was new enough. Image
Read 26 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(