Matt HB - matthodg.bsky.social
@matthewhodg
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Aerospace w. Rocketry @ Swansea Uni. Transportation Planner/Modeller. ⚡️ all the things + HS2 + NPR + Light rail/metro 🇪🇺🇬🇧🇩🇪 Personal views only. He/Him
Lambeth, London
Joined September 2013
Love that we solved low cost, high capacity public transport 40 years ago and just decided never to do it again anywhere in this country…
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Love zooming out on graphs….
Growth stalling, inflation rising, unemployment looming. Labour’s reckless decisions have reversed our hard-won progress. They claim to stand for working people, but their choices are making life harder for everyone.
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For context if this level of public transport was given in the UK, . Cardiff.Nottingham.Southampton/Portsmouth.Sheffield.Newcastle.Liverpool.Leeds.Manchester.Birmingham. would have similar systems. We are so far behind it’s a joke.
The driverless Lille metro in France, (urban area: 1.2 million people) operates every 66 seconds (!!!) during rush hour—the most frequent metro service in the world!
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Elizabeth, Jubilee, Overground, Central.
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£1.7bn could get close to double tracking and electrifying the entire West of England Mainline… . You know, actually reducing congestion…
BREAKING: The Stonehenge tunnel is going ahead. The Transport Secretary has granted a Development Consent Order (DCO) to construct it. A DCO previously issued for the project was quashed by the High Court in July 2021 amid concern about the environmental impact.
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HS2 Phase 2a cancelled today:.£5-7bn. Funding to fix potholes announced today:.£8.3bn . Just so we are all clear what long term planning looks like.
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Airbus.
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Here, have 3….
Have you got an idea that could change the face of transport?.You could receive a share of £1.8m to support your innovative transport solutions!.Read more on Transport Research and Innovation Grants competition and how to apply.
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We perfected medium scale public transport with the DLR and have just decided to not build it anywhere else. It’s maddening. Similar networks should have been built in every metropolitan area with over 1.5m people 20 years ago.
The beauty of my trip at night on @tfl DLR. Weaving aloft silent electrickery through ancient former docklands - we press on to Canning Town. Then a spin 180; we zip eastwards on to distant Beckton – dawn breaks ahead. And yes, I pretended I was the driver. I am 42¾ years old.
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There is no route in London that needs a tram more than Brixton to Croydon. If you have to run 10+ bus routes on a road to keep up with demand you need higher order transport…
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This is how we should be doing long distance light freight… not lorries.
I am hoping to capture more footage of the 325s before they are withdrawn in October unless the government steps in to save the 325s.
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Just so everyone is aware, this is the "natural" landscape this tunnel is protecting. Yes that is an old RAF airfield.
Words fail me. Here's HS2 being built at Chipping Campden. Anyone bellyaching about why HS1 costs so much, look at this and then just shut up and go away.
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So glad we’ve cancelled the only chance we had to fix scenes like this to “fund” pothole schemes and new roads. 😒.
Took 25 minutes just to get out of Euston this evening. So dangerous. Totally out of control.
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Anyone care to explain to me how Paris builds near 16km extension to an existing line for €2.8bn and the 7.5km Bakerloo extension is supposed to cost £4.7-7.2bn?.
1/4.Line 14 extension just opened today in Paris!.➡️ 15.7 km / 9.8 miles.➡️ 8 new stations.➡️ 1 million passengers/day.➡️ Fully driverless trains with frequencies up to 85 seconds.➡️ 6 years of construction.➡️ Cost: €2.8 billion (€178M per km) / $3.0 billion (no cost overrun)
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So glad this government has decided this is perfectly fine and we don’t need a serious expansion of rail capacity from Manchester to Birmingham (HS2).
Hey @CrossCountryUK is the acceptable??? Manchester to Bournemouth Friday evening prior to a bank holiday, only FOUR carriages 🤬🤬🤬🤬 At £150 too.
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This single train can carry near 1500 people. 24 of these an hour per direction and honestly, why would you need motorways in to your city?
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Since 2019 the Tories have:. -Cancelled Crossrail 2.-Mothballed the Bakerloo Extntn.-Cancelled the Pic Line Upgrade.-Stalled the order for new trains for the Deep Tube.-Mothballed HS2 to Euston. I’m trying to think of something they haven’t cancelled. Not sure Leeds wants that….
Rishi Sunak says Leeds will be 'treated like London' for transport plans.
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These 50+ year old trains have no replacement plan. For a railway with 120m annual riders this is insane.
Couple of shots of 1972 stock at Queens Park with Bakerloo services. 10.1.23
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Good noises but this was always the plan for HS2. If the logic applies to London Euston, it applies to rest of it.
“Euston was always planned to be part of the picture for HS2 and we're hoping to make an announcement on that very soon. “. “It would never have made sense to leave it between Old Oak Common and Birmingham”, says transport secretary Louise Haigh. @LouHaigh | @AasmahMir
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Saying HS2 is bad value for money is like building this much of the Elizabeth Line and complaining its not as well used as the full route would have been. If you dont build 2/3rds of a project, what do you expect to happen.
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Ah yes, good to see we are immediately kneecapping the capacity of the most important rail project in the UK. Just fantastic. Imagine building the majority of the Elizabeth line then deciding to only run a train every 10mins on it to save 2% of the budget. We are so cooked.
The new @HS2ltd station at Euston will have six platforms, confirms rail minister @LordPeterHendy (so no return to previous plans for 11 or 10 platforms)
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What did we do without the Elizabeth line?
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Might be time to dig out the plans for a total rebuild of Euston into a unified HS2 and conventional station, as originally envisaged….
It is “reasonably clear that multiple areas of Euston station reach capacity” even without the HS2 service delivering its extra passengers to the station, the leaked paper says, spelling out the findings in modelling.
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You ever find yourself staring into the middle distance and thinking. I really wish we'd built HS1 properly and KX Lowlevel was there today ready to reccieve some HS2 and International trains from North of London.
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It’s been so long I legitimately forgot that Glasgow was getting new subway trains. What on (or under) Earth has happened to them?
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This land use next to a £400m station makes me sad.
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770k journeys in a single day is about 70% of the lines maximum theoretical current capacity. After 2 years. This is mind blowing levels of success and should be followed by at least progressing the Bakerloo extension and fleet replacement if not Crossrail 2…. 🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗.
Elizabeth line tops 300m journeys since opening as @TfL considers fitting "busyness indicators" to trains to help passengers find a seat
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So that whole “let’s cut investment in rail, no one will use it post Covid” thing is going well huh….
Good rail news!. Latest @railandroad stats show rail passenger journeys up by 7%. A BILLION more passenger kilometres were travelled compared to the same quarter last year!. More people choosing rail means less traffic, pollution & carbon emissions. #BetterByTrain.
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I know the Lizzie line is nice and the frequency of the Victoria line is wild but the core of the Sub Surface lines after the 4LM upgrades is wild… as is Farringdon.
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Near £1bn a mile for a dual carriageway…. But sure actually finishing #HS2 to Euston Manchester and Leeds is too expensive. This government needs to be gone asap.
BREAKING: The Stonehenge tunnel is going ahead. The Transport Secretary has granted a Development Consent Order (DCO) to construct it. A DCO previously issued for the project was quashed by the High Court in July 2021 amid concern about the environmental impact.
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“Fit for the future” - meaning finishing HS2 right? . … right?.
Today @LouHaigh will set out @UKLabour’s plans to take our railways into public ownership. To end the managed decline of our railways and make them:.✅ Passenger-focused .✅ Publicly owned.✅ Fit for the future. 3 weeks into Government, we’re delivering on our promise for Change.
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Line is at capacity at about 1m Daily journeys. It’s already nearing 700k…. Just an incredible success.
The Elizabeth line has its busiest month yet. ➡️ The Elizabeth line has had its busiest month yet, after it carried over 17 million passengers in a 28-day period for the first time.
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Just a reminder that HS2 was designed to handle 1 in 1000 year rainfall and 1 in 100 year flooding.
These newly electrified double width canals are a sight to be seen!
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How was this not reported when HS2 was cancelled?!? It’s so blatantly obvious….
Why HS2 axe could mean slower, more crowded trains between London and Manchester.
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Well who could have seen this coming…. 🙄. Cancelling the most valuable and best value parts of HS2 was a mistake that will cripple our rail network for the better part of a decade. Oh and Labour aren’t fixing this. At the very least 2a must be built by HS2 Ltd and ASAP.
Axing of HS2 phase 2 (northern leg): "DfT will not be able to address capacity issues on the West Coast Main Line north of Birmingham through its revised programme scope.".
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Incredible how good design immediately settles into the landscape. What’s left of HS2 really is going to be a fantastic piece of tragically underused infrastructure unless Phase 2 is built out.
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With the Elizabeth Line open and through running on the horizon, serious thought should be given to the closure of London City Airport. I blights a large part of East London and takes up a huge amount of prime land that could be used for house building.
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This is like saying it’s fine to terminate the Elizabeth line at Bond St because the Bakerloo line gets you to Paddington….
Rishi Sunak is asked about the capacity issues on the West Coast Mainline, now that the northern leg of HS2 has been scrapped. Mr Sunak says "completing phase one [from London to Birmingham] provides capacity along the route". 📺 Sky 501 and YouTube
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Should have been built 40 years ago but better late than never. Now stop meddling and faffing about and build in full: .-NPR.-HS2.-EWR.-Crossrail 2.-Bakerloo Extension .-TDNS.
🟣🚆The Elizabeth Line has now seen more than one hundred million journeys since opening in May 2022!!. 🗓️New timetable from May .🚨600,000 journeys made each day.↗️on track to break even by the end of the 2023/24 financial year. A remarkable success for London!.
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I know there’s a lot to be said about railways as green corridors but when you break them down they are multi £billion transport assets that should be made as resilient as possible to increasingly frequent extreme weather events. If that means serious lineside cutback, so be it.
🌬️With Storm Darragh expected to bring strong winds again today, some services are likely to be disrupted. 🍃High winds can cause branches, trees and objects from further away to fall onto the tracks, damaging overhead wires and blocking the railway. 👷♀️👷♂️We are working hard to
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I see Sunak is actually in competition with Truss for who can waste as much public money as possible… . STOP CHANGING MAJOR INFRASTRUCTURE DURING CONSTRUCTION. Is it really that hard to leave things alone…?.
Vast swathes of the London to Birmingham leg of HS2 will have to be redesigned as part of a review ordered by the Government that could push costs even further, @theipaper can reveal . 🔴 @BenGartside and @RichardVaughan1 report
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Gotta say, the Grand Paris works are turning out to be fantastically aesthetically pleasing while simple and probably most importantly, cheap.
Truly majestic new metro station in La Défense. You can now travel on a direct train from Gare du Nord to the Paris business district in 10 min (with new RER E line that will also serve the 2024 Olympic press centre)
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It’s taken a year for the EL to go from not existing to carrying near 1m pass per day as a integral part of London. There are so many projects like this across the UK that are just not happening but this really shows the potential we have to do great public transport!.
One year ago today - the Elizabeth line joined up all the bits.
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It only has double the train building capacity it needs because we are refusing to replace 30-50 year old trains as well as doing next to nothing about electrifying the network. HS2s cancellation has left the industry with 15 years of planning down the drain. This is the result.
NEW: .- warning of 10,000 job cuts across train makers and wider supply chain @HitachiRailENG .- minister concedes UK has double the train building capacity it needs.- Govt snubbed @Alstom request to build €2bn Irish train order in #Derby.
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Grand Paris is utterly bonkers and utterly brilliant. Can you image London adding: .-4 new tube lines .-2 tube extensions. By 2030! .We won’t even have started the Bakerloo extension or Crossrail 2 by then.
🎉Nouvelle étape pour le métro des lignes 15/16/17 du réseau francilien !. La 1ère voiture vient de quitter notre site de Valenciennes pour rejoindre le centre d'exploitation Champigny où le train procédera à une nouvelle série d’essais. @IDFmobilites @GdParisExpress #TeamAlstom
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The SoST is completely correct,. But it makes equally as little sense for it to end in Litchfield. We need it to reach Crewe (Phase 2a) and EM Parkway (East) at a minimum.
It would make absolutely no sense to end HS2 in Old Oak Common. That’s why this Labour government is doing the right thing and delivering HS2 to Euston:. Bringing the line to the heart of the capital. 🚆➡️🏙️.
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Euston is not fit for purpose as it stands.
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We need a return to estates and hatchbacks being the standard over SUV. They are just so good.
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Personally I’m shocked…. 🙄. Of the 14 rail announcements only 2 have any funding mentioned. The other 12 are never happening. 1 is NW Electrification, which gets £1bn, but has been costed at £2bn… soooooo 🤷♂️.
BREAKING . After just 24 hours, the government has dropped its commitment to reopen the Leamside Line. It was included yesterday in the initial Network North announcements, now it’s gone. Roads minister Richard Holden tells me Govt is now just ‘committed to looking into it’.
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@MellonSdp6741 Inflation takes it toll on that £78m figure but still, that’s a hell of a lot of infrastructure for the equivalent of ~£219m. Something to be proud of working on!.
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I’m not sure many people are aware of just how bad a state Arriva TW left Wales’ rail network in…. .
🚆We know it’s been hard for our customers as not enough trains have been available recently, however progress is being made and we've introduced a number of new trains with many more joining the network in the near future.
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It’s been a massive success and we haven’t built any others in London despite there being perfect corridors for them. 🙄.
Nearly thirty years ago, in January 1995, Croydon Tramlink was approved by the Secretary of State for Transport. Tramlink began operation in May 2000 as Croydon Tramlink, becoming the first tram system in London since 1959. Remember the red trams?. #lightrail #history #london
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This is near exactly what Manchester should look like by 2032.
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3+2 seating is useless as soon at it gets off a spreadsheet. It’s there to boost seat numbers without requiring extra trains (either longer or more frequent). Wide isles make for dramatically better trains in practice.
A quick walk through of @c2c_Rail 720607. It has fewer seats than a GA classmate with less 3+2 seating.
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Soon for lease:. 27 Class 222s.3 previous owners.19-21 years old.125mph capable w. High acceleration. I wonder who’s going to pick them up….
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Why have we not done this to the narrow streets of the West End exactly….?.
For big cities, Paris 🇫🇷 is definitely leading the way when it comes to pedestrianizing their city core at record speeds. 😎
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Oh good, another fuel duty freeze. 🤬. So glad we are cancelling long term rail investments (HS2) and hampering devolved public transport expansion (TfL) to keep down the cost of motoring.
The Times reports that the two main tax cuts expected in next month’s budget are a 1 percentage-point reduction in employee national insurance, at a cost of about £4.5 billion a year, and an extension of the fuel duty freeze, at a cost of £1 billion a year. If the PM/Chancellor.
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Double Deck TGVs in St Pancras! . HS1 is about to get even busier!.
Breaking: new operator Evolyn announces a plan to launch high speed train services through the Channel Tunnel in competition with Eurostar. Details to follow. .
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This is such a colossal glow up for Paddington. Felt like a smoking terrace before….
We’ve made it to Paddington (mile 13 of 20), where they’re making good progress on the new station entrance to the Bakerloo Line (which also provides direct step free access)
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There is one reason why the line is depressed several metres for most of its length where it could have been on the surface. To mitigate the lines impact on locals. There is no way to appease some people.
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No big deal, just some of the busiest lines in the country….
A new paper from electrification engineers at Furrer+Frey AG identifies five railway lines in need of immediate assessment and renewal to prevent further disruption and delays for passengers. More here:. #railnews #railways #railwayinfrastructure.
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@IanDunt This. Not everyone has a 60ftx20ft garden. The mental health implications of not going outside aren’t to be underestimated.
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Huh, we did actually build this. That’s weird,.
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Really shows that cancelling the best bits of HS2 is a bad idea. 2a is -£5-7bn, it’s a no brainer to build. 2b is £17bn, you need it for NPR. East (to EM Parkway) needed to fully utilise what’s already been built. Phase 1 is £44bn, by far the most expensive and hardest to build.
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A good line for sure. Surely he’s reinstated HS2 in full, accelerated NPR and announced a rolling program of electrification in line with TDNS then right…. Right? 🦗
"You look at our infrastructure & it is clear almost immediately that we have long freeloaded off the British genius of the past - because we won't build a future". The most impressive line i've heard Starmer say. Wants to TRIPLE the number of big infrastructure projects.
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So turns out “Electric Spine” was another fantastic program we cancelled… 🙄. When are we going to learn….
Southampton’s container port aims to have 4 in 10 boxes moved by rail in 2026: a near-doubling of rail’s share versus road lorries in 3 years. Road to rail incentive for port customers extended
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€450m for a underground through high speed station. Manchester can only dream.
Spanish high-speed infrastructure manager Adif AV has awarded a €451.6m contract to build a new underground high-speed station at Madrid Atocha.
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Close City Airport….
London doesn’t need six airports.
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While a welcome improvement on GWR the fact there are now a ridiculous number of smart cards out there for various operators is a sign the industries guiding hands has failed. There should be a single smart card (or contactless debit card) system available for all operators.
Sign up for a smarter way to travel across West Cornwall!. We've teamed up with @CornwallCouncil to launch the pay-as-you-go touch smartcard, rolling payments & tickets into one. Register now and be ready to use your new card when the new scheme starts on 15 Nov!. @DCRailPart
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@DiffygG55991 Remove London and the UK is not a prosperous country. Our failure to invest in regional economies outside of London is colossal and tragic.
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You know what’s longer than an even these lorries….
From 31 May, longer lorries will be rolled out on UK roads:.✅ Providing a £1.4 billion boost for the UK’s economy.✅ Reducing carbon dioxide emissions.✅ Allowing companies like @GreggsOfficial to transport lots more of their baked goods to the UK public.
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So after all this we go back to the original (and best) plan…. Perfect example of why politics should be kept out of infrastructure. (Also, I despair at those timescales)
DfT looking at 3-4 extra platforms for Euston HS2 on top of 6 already planned. Alan Over tells Public Accounts Committee there are questions over how actively plans include this extra provision. Depends on likelihood of future HS2 expansion.
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8 through lanes gives a capacity of ~15,200 vehicles per hour. Avg vehicle occupancy means this will probably carry about 22,800 people at max capacity. The Elizabeth Line can move 36,000 pphpd with a footprint ~10% the width.
A 22-member board representing the suburbs and city of Austin voted to expand I-35, a project that will take a decade and further split downtown Austin. Every single member representing Austin voted against the expansion, yet they have no choice. Absolutely insane.
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The South Wales Metro is the most exciting rail project in the UK. Building a true regional metro for ~£1bn is extremely impressive. Will we see London Overground like success? I’m thinking so.
🚉 We've reopened the Ebbw Vale line between Cardiff Central and Ebbw Vale Town after big improvements. This included building two new platforms at Newbridge and Llanhilleth stations:. 👉 @NetworkRailWAL
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If only we’d just gotten on with both NPR and HS2 as designed…
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For gods sake. How this narrative is so pervasive I’ll never know but:. 1. Cancelling HS2 frees up absolutely no money for anything else. 2. Pitting public transport and social care against each other while playing into a Conservative austerity narrative is just gross.
Cancel HS2. There ya go. fixed social care for you.
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We getting the Bakerloo Extension and West London Orbital. Im calling it.
Great to spend the morning with @MayorofLondon and drivers at Waterloo bus depot. This Government will work with our capital, not against it.
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£215m for a 6km tunnel is insanely impressive.
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It’s really very funny that ETCS is fitted to a steam loco before the majority of UK rolling stock.
Initial testing of the European Train Control System (ETCS) fitted to LNER A1 Pacific Tornado has been conducted at the Great Central Railway. These images include the system interface with the driver. Astonishing how far mainline steam operations have come - and are going.
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Reminder: . We could have had something similar at Kings Cross, St Pancras….
Good morning from Antwerpen-Centraal, one of the most stunning railway stations in Europe 🤩 🇧🇪
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This is what St Pancras International should have been…. *runs for cover.
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This being said, trams are great but this should be in TfLs top 3 priorities while Central Gov and the Mayor are aligned. For £2.5 - 3bn, a 39tph uplift across S and SE London would be a step change in PT provision where TfLs service is very much lacking.
There is no route in London that needs a tram more than Brixton to Croydon. If you have to run 10+ bus routes on a road to keep up with demand you need higher order transport…
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Just so we are all aware, the LTC is 3.2x the cost per km of HS2 Phase 2a, which is still on doubt….
🚨 Rachel Reeves trying to plug a £22bn budget gap is going to slash social care and freeze your nan for a few billion but we’ve got to support £9bn for London commuters to smash a motorway through ancient woodland to “save a few minutes on their drive”.
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Scotland, just getting on with expansion and electrification of their rail network… . Wales, same thing… . England, 5km of electrification this year, Euston “too difficult to figure out what it is” (it’s a railway station) and TDNS Thanos snapped from existence. 😵💫.
🛤️ Exciting news for Fife! The Levenmouth Rail Link is marching on, with the new track reaching Cameron Bridge station, bringing a locomotive to the area for the first time in years. Next stop, Leven! . @transcotland @ScotRail
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If we had a functional government HS2 would have been finished in the mid 2010s.
#HighSpeedRail is experiencing a renaissance as passengers switch from the air.
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So predictable. So pathetic.
As I said yesterday, Labour leader Starmer says he can’t commit to reversing HS2 cancellation because of what he calls “wrecking ball” tactics from PM. “I can’t stand here and commit to reversing that decision, they’ve taken wrecking ball to it”.
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It’s ok Thameslink, you’ll always be London’s original RER. 💙🚆💜🚆.
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Absolute game changers these. Apparently matching the timings of the 66s away from the wires while providing 8,000 hp under the wires allows for incredible pathing flexibility. All in all, MORE RAILFREIGHT GOOD!!.
30 Class 99 EURODUAL bi-mode locos are being built by Stadler for Beacon Rail/GB Railfreight. 99002 will be on display next month’s InnoTrans exhibition in Berlin. 📸 Stadler
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Many many reasons from its low speed to its co-opting of critical central London infrastructure used for the Overground and Freight services. The opportunity for through int l services in London was lost well before this was canned. Right when KX low level went the same way.
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