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Gareth Dennis

@garethdennis.uk

12K followers 3.2K following 2.1K posts

Railway engineer and author of HOW THE RAILWAYS WILL FIX THE FUTURE (https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways). Hosts @railnatter.uk. Chairs Yorkshire PWI and NEREF. Co-founder of the Campaign for Level Boarding. He/him.

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 14d

For no particular reason, here's a graph showing the total number of passenger train vehicles reaching retirement by year between now and 2060...

For comparison, the 2015-2022 wave of new trains saw nearly 7000 vehicles introduced averaging almost 1000 a year.

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 6h

cool, bye

Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 1d

I've got a number for it somewhere, but not a good breakdown... £4M then, £12M today for the Snow Hill tunnels reopening

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Reposted by Gareth Dennis

pglux.bsky.social @pglux.bsky.social · 2d

In 🇨🇳, HSR makes airlines bleed

On Beijing - Shanghai 🚄 has 83% market share against ✈️ (17%)

1,200km, 4hrs18min at the fastest.
100 daily return services

+CR450AF at 400km/h from 2027:

evidencenetwork.ca/this-wave-ca...
@garethdennis.uk
@jonworth.eu
@taras-grescoe.com
@ryukyu-hsr.bsky.social

With its high-speed train, China has achieved what seemed impossible: flying is not profitable on an 808-mile route. - Evidence Network

With ultra-fast journeys, connected comfort and exemplary punctuality, the Chinese high-speed train is redefining travellers’ priorities, to the point of suffocating domestic air traffic between ... R...

evidencenetwork.ca

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 2d

I wish! it's a regular brown mop

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 3d

that is pretty rural(ish) - they only did about 5 years on there didn't they?

Reposted by Gareth Dennis

James W @twentyzeronine.bsky.social · 3d

@garethdennis.uk spotted in Waterstones Exeter 👍

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 3d

Settle Carlisle was a mainline that's future was saved well before Pacers arrived!

Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 3d

that's an intercity railway with intermediate stops

Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 3d

That's not true though - before the introduction of the Class 142s it was already understood that they were more costly than the 150s. And even Serpell said in his grubby report that closing fringe lines had little bearing on fleet costs.

Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 3d

no engineering disasters at the @nationaltrust.org.uk today, @wtyppod.bsky.social

extremely average looking man with many chins wears WTYP federal agency style baseball cap, yellow sweatshirt and navy stitch long coat with a Palestinian solidarity pin badge, set against a warm blue sky

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

this I VERY MUCH want to do

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

it's one of those classic British places that's serving a significant population for half of its length and nobody the rest - and would be an electrified suburban line in central Europe (in this case it so nearly is!)

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

ha, yeah latter is a fair point though I guess it reverse makes the case because they were useless on those lines... I'd still say Preston Ormskirk is suburban/semi-urban, given it's linking two major cities in the NW

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

I'm not sure! They were all used on suburban lines or the lines between cities in semi-urban Yorkshire (for example).

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

(said as someone who refuses to fly domestically but does drive quite a lot at the moment, and has family I'd simply not see without flying to the other end of Europe)

Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

public optics are one thing but spending every fibre in your being convincing politicians and organisers that their society will collapse within a few decades without radical and rapid change is more productive, and that means travel in places without good long distance transport

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

the biggest changes will be in harassing government into action, not by middle class people making moderate lifestyle changes, and frustratingly that does mean experts and advocates having to go to tell those people face to face

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

okay sure, but also this is vigorously individual choice oriented, which allows blame to be shifted away from government and industry - climate folk certainly have to think carefully about the line between Living In A Society and outright hypocrisy, but I don't think absolutism is hugely useful

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

this is our little one to a tee

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

hey hey are you in my house

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

correct.

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

A deep dive on the detail with the brilliant @kevindtennent.bsky.social here:
www.youtube.com/live/OmQKtc5...

#RailNatter | Episode 62: Pacers were bad and saved nothing (with Dr Kevin Tennent)

YouTube video by Gareth Dennis

www.youtube.com

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

The claim that "Pacers saved rural railway lines" seems not to have fully died a death yet. It's completely ahistoric on several fronts:

1. Pacers were never deployed on rural railway lines.
2. They cost more to buy and operate than Sprinters.
3. Several lines were closed during their tenure.

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Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

see the alt text!

Gareth Dennis @garethdennis.uk · 4d

also *Wolmar

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