Gareth Dennis

Rail engineer and writer. Hosts @Railnatter and @_Trainsatlantic. HOW THE RAILWAYS WILL FIX THE FUTURE available everywhere. He/him.

[Gareth Dennis @GarethDennis]

"The driver reported seeing a kink in the track which rocked the driving cab as the train passed over it."

[RAIB @raibgovuk]

We’re investigating https://t.co/4QT37eDe51 after the rearmost vehicle of a passenger train derailed near Wickford, Essex, 14 August 2026.

The train remained upright throughout with no reported injuries to the 62 people estimated to be on board.

#Derailment #Wickford #Essex

[Joe Brown @JoeBrownLondon]

Great to see the Tyne & Wear metro extension via Washington taking a step forwards, here it is in its ‘proposed’ status in my Rail Atlas of GB & Ireland 16th edition available here: https://t.co/n2hNRmhzn5

[Gareth Dennis @GarethDennis]

You'd have thought it might be a democratic imperative that the public would be informed when the leadership of one of the most strategically important programmes costing £2bn of public money changes! So far, it's only a small LinkedIn profile update and these pictures!

[Gareth Dennis @GarethDennis]

No sign of Toufic Machnouk then? Not even as a guest to the project he's been overseeing since 2017?

[Philip Haigh @philatrail]

GTR’s 0805 Welwyn Garden City to Moorgate on Monday August 31 became the first train to run on Network Rail’s new ETCS cab signalling on the East Coast Main Line proper. Unit was 717007. Until now ECML passenger services with ETCS have been confined to the Moorgate branch.

[Gareth Dennis @GarethDennis]

@philatrail You'd have thought it might be a democratic imperative that the public would be informed when the leadership of one of the most strategically important programmes costing £2bn of public money changes! So far, it's only a small LinkedIn profile update and these pictures!

[Possible @_wearepossible]

🚨 The Heathrow consultation closes tomorrow 🚨

If you don't want to see another 250,000 flights a year added to our already congested sky, now is the time to make your voice heard.

Say no to Heathrow's third runway: https://t.co/lLbjuj7zFk

[Gareth Dennis @GarethDennis]

@philatrail No sign of Toufic Machnouk then? Not even as a guest to the project he's been overseeing since 2017? Interesting.

[Philip Haigh @philatrail]

GTR’s 0805 Welwyn Garden City to Moorgate on Monday August 31 became the first train to run on Network Rail’s new ETCS cab signalling on the East Coast Main Line proper. Unit was 717007. Until now ECML passenger services with ETCS have been confined to the Moorgate branch.

[NJ @NoJusticeMTG]

yeah businesses work really well without roads and educated workers dont they

[James Meadway @meadwaj]

Oh well

[Marl Karx @BareLeft]

Weeping into my hands imagining if local councils in England could be compelled to do anything like this rather than wasting their time arguing about flags or whether the national anthem should be sung at the end of meetings.

[Murky Depths @TheMurkyDepths]

In an ideal world Transport for Manchester would develop it outright themselves.

Then use income to support the transport network.

I'm London TfL/PfL have pushed for public private partnerships and many are incredibly slow, if not collapsed after years.

[Gareth Dennis @GarethDennis]

@EngineerLondon Exactly! The rail unions are the vanguard, this is what everyone can achieve when unionised. Plus all they've achieved is to resist a real terms pay cut, it's barely inflation-busting...

[Alastair Dalton @AlastairDalton]

Exclusive in @TheScotsman: Anger at new Union Jack-style rail branding at major Glasgow station https://t.co/zeih7KvCZD

[BASH BACK @xoxoBASHBACK]

Our response to NHS Wales suspending all gender-affirming surgeries.

This cruelty will kill people. We will resist.

( 1 / 4 )

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Jeremy Corbyn, "Margaret Thatcher's whole idea was that you would solve the problems of environmental sustainability by leaving it all to the market."

"And Dennis Skinner used to say something, it was quite witty, actually. He said, “You can't fix the ozone hole with a man, a bike, and an enterprise allowance.”

Zack Polanski, "Nice. Did you cross over as an MP with Margaret Thatcher?"

Jeremy Corbyn, "Yes."

Zack Polanski, "And what was she like?"

Jeremy Corbyn, "Oh, very formidable, very well informed. And very quick. And also, unlike many of her predecessors and successors, she absolutely believed in what she was doing."

"She was totally wrong"

Zack Polanski, "Right?"

Jeremy Corbyn, "Totally wrong on industry, totally wrong on society, obviously totally wrong about poll tax, and so on."

"But she totally believed in it."

"I remember Tony Benn once saying, he said, “Well, actually, the thing about Thatcher is she believes in what she's doing, and so you have to confront her with an alternative ideology and an alternative philosophy,” and that was not what was done."

"There was too much demonising of her as an individual."

"Well, you can demonise any individual. You, me, anybody can do that. It doesn't actually change anything."

Zack Polanski, "Yeah."

Jeremy Corbyn, "Just demonise somebody else after that. You've actually got to have a coherent philosophy of the kind of society you want to live in and how you're going to get people to go with you on that journey."

"And that's where grassroots activism, peace activism, and hopes are so important."

[Gareth Dennis @GarethDennis]

@ManchestaM1 @philatrail Not a good idea, not least because no trains are fully built in any country any more. Where do you draw the line? If it's "every subsystem" then we'd have to build a supply chain from scratch.

[Gareth Dennis @GarethDennis]

@LordOrk @ScotRail @LevelBoarding @joannemaguire79 Doesn't sound like enough of a commitment to level boarding versus the tender documents, I look forward to clarity on that front.

[Philip Haigh @philatrail]

ScotRail is shortlisting five train makers for its new fleet of at least 69 battery electric and electric suburban trains (with options for 37 more). The five are Alstom, CAF, Hitachi, Siemens and Stadler. Into service in early 2030s, ScotRail says.

[Luis Moreno @LuisMorenolg]

I was the former Deputy and often Acting U.S. Ambassador to Israel. And I’d have to give this a very, very high degree of possibility.