Let's post some receipts, for the benefit of anyone attempting to defend @LordPeterHendy, @SYSTRA_UKIRL and @NetworkRail's actions in some way. Because I have a folder of this stuff. Off the bat, I am going to make an apology and say that I won't do alt text for this thread as it is too onerous - however if you require alt text for accessibility reasons, please just DM me and I can send you the whole lot directly.

I don't know who needs to hear it, but giving public sector workers a decent above-inflation pay rise is probably one of the quickest ways to turn the UK economy around. (I do know who needs to hear it, it's Labour shadow cabinet members.)

Apropos of nothing, here are two maps showing where Britain's high speed rail network should be... Not for the high speed trains, but for the capacity they'd release on heavily congested existing railway lines. #whyHS2 What are those maps? They show average daily road flows (the second one is for HGVs).

This is straight out of @safemyth's excellent report on HS2's carbon benefits: #whyHS2

https://twitter.com/GarethDennis/status/1193844488411779073?t=JWjXDIm9xgtQBfd4sjYiUA&s=19

Let's talk about this #Gadgetbahn: the Padova t̶r̶a̶m̶ guided bus.
Firstly, let's get the important question out of the way... What is it?

If the branding of the system is to be believed, it's a tram. Spoiler alert: it isn't.

I seem to be seeing a lot of these ex-@EddieStobartCom (?) boxes at the moment... Plus these wagons are German, so these will have done a long trip at some point.

Also: retrofitted side-loading ISO boxes? Clever if so! From the top...

There's easily a full #RailNatter episode covering how wrong everything in this tweet is...

https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/1542059391389765632

For starters, the ECML was resignalled in the 1950s with one of the most sophisticated power signalling systems in the world, and then again in the 1990s with genuinely world-leading solid state interlocking (SSI). Since then, further incremental upgrades have continued.

Well, the #IntegratedRailPlan (a.k.a. #RailBetrayal) has landed. And immediately we can see that their plans are just a re-announcement of things that have already been planned (or indeed cancelled): Actually, the proposals precisely mimic the NIC's Rail Needs Assessment from last year, despite government decrying it loudly after its publication.

If you want to understand why those plans were bad, I wrote about it in reasonable detail: #RailBetrayal
garethdennis.medium.com/the-nic-have-f…

I've no doubt I'm going to be popping up all day talking about the government's awful #RailBetrayal - but here's a warm up in the @Independent: independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi… My key #RailBetrayal line:
“Running faster trains on the existing network will actually result in a railway that can carry fewer passengers and less freight than it can today.”

As pointed out by @JenWilliamsMEN and others, there is a lot of confusion in the midst of this week's #RailBetrayal news over what the various legs and phases of HS2 and NPR actually refer to...

So, I created a map (click to pause): The white lines are the existing network, in case you hadn't worked it out...

It becomes pretty obvious why the Eastern Leg is so crucial when you see the map above, but if you want another animated map then this explains things clearly:

https://twitter.com/PermanentRail/status/1158040889736015872

If you enjoyed tonight's wonderful series finale of #TheArchitectureTheRailwaysBuilt🧣 then remember you can catch @MrTimDunn and I on last week's #RailNatter taking a cheeky behind-the-scenes look at the hit @YesterdayTweets show!

https://twitter.com/GarethDennis/status/1458408569733324804

Oh, and if you want to see Tim and I exploring inside the old Curzon Street station principal building as well as a plod around inside the roundhouse (courtesy of @HS2ltd), then you can watch this old thing:

The last leg! Paris to York! 😭

(terrible PTI of course, as with all high speed European trains) So little left of our 4000km epic from south east to north west Europe...

https://twitter.com/GarethDennis/status/1433025455381172225?s=19

So, our journey from Rome to Paris begins... With the 62 bus, and its total lack of suspension. My spine has popped up into my brain and is giving me a headache. We're catching the Turin train from Tiburtina station which is a striking enough edifice... Though I must say for a ten year old station its fabric hasn't aged well.

I've changed my mind on vaccine "passports" for limiting access to shared venues to only those who've got the vaccine or aren't able to for genuine reasons... Possibly as a result of seeing them in action in Italy.

What do you think? Bombard me with your thoughts. It feels like a non-intrusive way of penalising people who've chosen not to vaccinate themselves and thus put all of us at risk and keep *all this* happening...

Before, I was against it as it felt a bit slippery slope-like, but in reality it's mostly just like age ID is already.

We're roughly 1000km into a ~4000km flight-free return journey from Belgrade... We've also very much taken the slow route back 🏖️ Here's our route... Train from Belgrade to Bar, bus to Dubrovnik, ferry to Bari, train all the way back to York (via Rome and Paris).

Countries passed through: 🇷🇸🇧🇦🇲🇪🇭🇷🇮🇹🇫🇷🇬🇧
(we're in a pretty privileged position to be able to make such a trip, let's face it)

I'm on my holidays but have nipped off on some brief #PointlessPerambulations to look at the rather unique and squeezed-in former railways in Barnstaple... Here's what it looked like! It was properly squished in next to the old Barnstaple Bridge, popping out over the muddy Taw at around 90° and joining the other bank almost parallel to the river. #PointlessPerambulations

By the end of the month, rail ridership will be at its highest level since the start of the pandemic (45%). I would be very surprised if it didn't reach 60% before the end of June, and I think it might be quicker than that.

What happens afterwards depends largely on London.

https://twitter.com/PermanentRail/status/1384823057747939329

Here's a higher resolution version of the "traveller type" graph in that thread, using quarterly data...

You can see that, during the pandemic, London travellers ended up accounting for a *higher* percentage of rail journeys. Which potentially confounds a lot of predictions.

Colton Junction outtakes: Double Voyager edition. Colton Junction outtakes: Double Azuma edition.

This is my heaven. Let the train take the strain... With bonus heritage traction thrown in for good measure.

Narrow minds, narrow aspirations... #AbolishTheTreasury
chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-eas… "if we cut stations out of the design of the railway it will be cheaper"

The interim @raibgovuk report covering the 2020 Carmont derailment is out: gov.uk/government/new…

Interesting reading in relation to the operational response to multiple infrastructure failures - but the crashworthiness of the HST is also under question. The full list of factors being investigated is as follows (sorry for images rather than text):

Photo doesn't really show it, but the classic surge for the train at KGX felt more like normal times... Pretty busy. Vic line was rammed, too.

I'm looking forward to seeing those ridership numbers - but more importantly I hope DfT are paying attention. Praise be to the @LNER Advance First 😘👌
(once again booked same day and only £35)

(also so nice to be travelling with @LNER again, it feels like being back with old family 👋)