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Tom Forth

@thomasforth

Nov 23

"unfortunately due to same late changes to Parliamentary business in the House of Commons" is the excuse the UK government are using for not turning up at #OneNorth The Great North Conference and instead sending a flagtastic video from Westminster. Not good enough.

If our Parliament means that our Government cannot engage with us where we are then it isn't working and it needs to be reformed.

I read quite a lot anti-devolutionary opinion. And I understand the argument. But if we are to be One Nation rules from the centre then the centre has to at least make an effort. And since it doesn't, we need devolution.

Read 9 tweets

Tom Forth

@thomasforth

Nov 22

"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?

Read 8 tweets

Tom Forth

@thomasforth

Nov 22

Tomorrow morning it's going to be dark, 4°C, and heavily raining. So I think I will get the train to Manchester for the Great Northern Conference. I'd have cycled in the Summer, but it isn't the Summer.

So far, so good. The train I'd planned on is cancelled. But the next one should be fine. I'm told that enough people have given up on the train now that even after a cancelled train you can usually get on the next one.

@TheDataCity

I'm talking in t'afternoon about Advanced Manufacturing and Advanced Materials. We have two relevant RTICs in @TheDataCity platform. 13,777 companies with 406k employees, over €5bn of investment funding and £590m of InnovateUK funding, identified by AI based on their websites.

Read 7 tweets

Tom Forth

@thomasforth

Nov 22

I've been looking at low productivity in the UK. Trying to find examples with data of where it actually happens. Public transport is an ace example. Compared to our more productive neighbouring countries we use far more drivers to transport fewer people. That's low productivity.

I was pretty sure this would be the case, but I've been surprised by how big the gap is. Now I'm looking for the next measurable and visible thing. Not sure what it'll be yet.

Data on the public transport stuff is here. North England and Leeds use lots more vehicles (mostly buses) and lots more drivers to provide many fewer public transport journeys than Dublin, Lille, and the Netherlands. Very low productivity. tomforth.co.uk/toomanybuses

Read 12 tweets

Tom Forth

@thomasforth

Nov 21

@ovinfoapp

Downloaded the Netherlands' national public transport timetable. 😍@ovinfoapp Gonna see whether its service patterns are more British (service throughout the day at a pretty much constant frequency from 8am to 6pm) or French/Irish (more services at peak, fewer during the day).

This has required me, due to the way I wrote my software back in the day, to pick a city that I consider the centre of the Netherlands. And I picked Amersfoort, which is in the province of Utrecht, and is always where the Netherlands' public transport smartcard is based.

Fascinating stuff. The buses are like France and Ireland, but the trains, metros, and trams are quite British.

Read 7 tweets

Tom Forth

@thomasforth

Nov 21

Do you know what "Temple Works" is in Leeds?

Do you know what "Tower Works" is in Leeds?

Tower Works is a former steel pin factory in central Leeds. Most notably the site (closed since the early 80s) contains three preserved ornate Italian-style towers, mostly decorative, partly chimneys (possibly more). They are now the centrepiece of a very pleasing development.

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