Six months ago, the PM got called a liar for citing one of my threads.

I’ve been getting to the bottom of what happened. Did spiders kill Ebbsfleet? Did they not?

Or, as seems to happen so often in my threads, does it all hinge on a bizarre twist? One reason last time went a bit strange is that I didn’t do footnotes. This time, you can find them over on S*st*k. If you’re writing a speech for the PM, please do read them.

open.substack.com/pub/michaeldne…

On Thursday night, we heard that government was making big concessions on its planning bill, putting lots more controls on its nature recovery plans.

I find this disappointing. And to explain why, I have to tell a story I’ve been holding off from sharing. This is not a fictional story – it has affected real people. Some within the past few days. If you’ve been affected, I’m so sorry.

I did think hard about whether to post this. But now is the time to speak up.

(sstk link here if anyone wants footnotes )open.substack.com/pub/michaeldne…

A new quirk in the history of British infrastructure has presented itself. Say hello to the ghost motorway.

And like most ghosts, it has a message for us.🧵 A while ago, @bswud posted a factoid from an old white paper I wrote – since 1990, France has built more miles of motorway than the whole UK network – 2,700.

And at the time of writing, we’d built 300 miles. 46 since the year 2000.

https://x.com/bswud/status/1838161616505905237

In honour of international women’s day – was the motor car co-invented by a woman? And have we been robbing her of credit for 140 years?

The story begins with a heist… It’s 1888. Early in the morning. Bertha Benz, wife of Carl, hustles her two teenage sons into her husband’s workshop.

They all pile onto the Benz Patentmotorwagen 3, start the engine, and drive off into the unknown.

I’m tired of hearing about bats. Do you want to hear a story about jumping spiders and the town that disappeared?

I think I might be breaking this story – do come be the first to read it. Back in the 90s, they were building a high-speed rail line to the Channel Tunnel. The railway crossed the Thames and came out at a patch of wasteland in Kent.

Not a nice place – old quarries, landfill and aging industry. But someone had an idea.

@SamCoatesSky was expressing his astonishment yesterday on Sky News that the PM had singled out one judicial review applicant to blame for the legal challenges bedevilling infrastructure projects.

Let’s fix that 😈

Here’s a story that starts with a man shut in his cellar. (I believe the reason the PM identified the man he did is because he doesn’t have any live court cases. Where someone does (and this person always does) it would risk forcing a mistrial

Not a limit on me - obviously)

Is the UK’s electric vehicle target about to fall to pieces? And why might it all hinge on parking in East London?

I shouldn’t tell you – yet – because our report only goes online the new year. But, since it’s running in the papers, here’s a thread.🧵🔌🚗 (Here’s the Guardian article)

theguardian.com/environment/20…

Since the HS2 bat tunnel is back in the news (turns out it may actually kill the bats), time for one more story.

Which came first – HS2 or the bats? 🚄🦇🧵 HS2 affects a particularly sensitive bat – Bechstein’s bat. The infamous £100m bat tunnel was built to save them from being hit by passing trains.

In 2005, we only knew of six colonies in the UK. None of which were near HS2.

Does HS2 have a future?

And why might that question hinge on an unseen government document and a sugar mill in Nottinghamshire?🧵 Last time I wrote about HS2, I mentioned there was a government document that had turned my sense of what to do with HS2 on its head.

Time to stop teasing. Here it is.


And this is what it says in a picture (plus my thoughts)

But you need some context. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

We have a new report out today. Because we’ve found one weird fact that unites all four constituencies that swung Reform for the first time at the election.🧵 Full report here, for your entertainment

stonehavenglobal.com/moving_hearts_…

Back in July, I got into trouble for writing about road pricing.

But there was one thing so explosive I had to leave it out. Now I'm free, I should finish the story.

And, thanks to my new employer, I have the numbers🧵 (If you want the last thread, I had to take it down for … reasons. The basic content is still available here



TLDR: you can – briefly – make painless changes to motoring taxation)threadreaderapp.com/thread/1809853…

It’s the time for Budget dissections. Now I’m free to talk, it’s my turn to have a go. What does the Budget really do for transport?🧵 The big news is fuel duty. 7p/litre of rises were threatened; 0p arrived.

Despite petrol being 11p/litre cheaper than in April.

That’s £3.0bn in revenue next year foregone. And, let’s be honest, more in following years when the Chancellor does the same again.

It seems HS2 is going to Euston. Big cheers from the rail crowd.

But there’s a much bigger question that hasn’t been answered yet. And it might be the most important question in 100 years of UK railway history.🧵

telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/… Before I get indiscreet, a bit of personal news. I’m now working in transport outside of the civil service with the lovely people @stonehaven_uk

Any complaints go in the replies, and not to the Cabinet Office.

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that road pricing is political suicide.

But what if it wasn’t? And what if I knew people who’d almost proved it?

Come with me, and try to avoid losing a trillion dollars as we go.🧵

https://twitter.com/Psythor/status/1806602476994592953

A caveat: whenever a civil servant talks about road pricing, people ask whether it’s signs of a secret plan.

The old government is gone. The new government can’t make any secret plans because they’re still looking for where the biros are kept.

So no secrets, I promise.

This tweet has got a lot of people talking about why Britain seems so short of electric railways.

15 years ago, it was about to be very different. And then things went very wrong. 🧵

https://twitter.com/PranMan/status/1774251583754146072

Back in BR days, electrification was sporadic. Partly because BR was good at the alternatives.

In the 1960s Britain got rid of its steam trains v fast, meaning switching diesels was the only option.

And they made some very nice diesels, so it felt bearable

This weekend, Britain may be about to have its worst traffic jam ever. Up to five hours of delay for 100,000 drivers or more.

Would you believe me if I told you the reason is because Britain's most hated motorway is too good?

Or that someone had a semi-secret plan to fix that🧵 From Friday to Sunday, National Highways will close the M25 (London’s ring road) from junction 10 to 11

It's unavoidable. For the first time in 40 years we're rebuilding one of its junctions – which means demolition work that can’t be done in a night

After the revival of this old thread on UK infrastructure, I realise that I never followed through on my promise: to explain what might speed it up.

Grab a spade, and come with me. 🧵

(thanks to @Sam_Dumitriu and @DavidHenigUK for reminding me)

https://twitter.com/MichaelDnes1/status/1630578526293204993

TLDR on the last thread: the system isn’t slowing down because it’s failing – it’s slowing down because people are responding rationally to the incentives they face.

The money shot was this chart – 5.5 years of process you must do _before_ you can start building a road in the UK

Enjoying the recent @WorksInProgress article by @Sam_Dumitriu on speeding up infrastructure. It made me look back to my time as designer of the UK’s roads programme, and our struggles to speed things up. 🧵 (1/19)

https://twitter.com/Sam_Dumitriu/status/1629540478923288577

Obviously, not everyone is sad when roadbuilding goes slow. But the same rules apply to all infrastructure, notably the clean energy we urgently need. If e.g. you like @edmiliband ‘s plans for a decarbonised grid by 2030, you need to fix the same problems. (2/19)