Gareth Dennis

@garethdennis.uk

Rail engineer and writer. Hosts @railnatter.uk and @trainsatlantic.uk. HOW THE RAILWAYS WILL FIX THE FUTURE (https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways) available everywhere. He/him.

@garethdennis.uk Pinned

On the left is the ORR predicting yesterday's failure in March 2026. On the right is me on the BBC describing government's inadequate funding of Network Rail, and why we are going to see many more major disruptive events like this unless there's a change in direction.

Gaps in resilience of signalling supply power back-up systems are a risk. Failures of signalling supply power have emerged as a growing risk to network performance and potentially safety, due to the loss of signalling capability. Recent incidents at Stoke, Stone, and Kidsgrove occurred within North West & Central region, but they may point to a wider issue. We have identified a systemic oversight gap between Network Rail's electrical & power and signalling disciplines, particularly in relation to the provision and assurance of resilient back-up power arrangements. This gap does not appear to be fully addressed through Network Rail's internal incident reviews, increasing the risk of recurrence.Government must fund railways adequately, says rail engineer published at 11:50 11:50 A rail engineer and podcaster has called on the government to fund the railways adequately, warning that Network Rail - the body that owns most of the UK's rail infrastructure is being told to "run a minimum viable product". Gareth Dennis tells BBC Radio 5 Live that Network Rail's funding "was so much lower than it needed to be for the railways to stay afloat". He says that at the start of the year, there were "massive redundancies" at Network Rail, so having staff members who know they need to be checking back-up supplies becomes "the sort of thing that falls through the cracks". "The government is really responsible for this and needs to be funding the railways adequately - they currently see the railways as an asset that costs them money, but they should be seeing it as an engine for growth and investing accordingly," he says.
@rikuforthrail.bsky.socialReposted by @garethdennis.uk

It’s clear as day- our society has left totally unquestioned the idea of putting pedestrians at a disadvantage just to have a car in close reach. This culture has played a part in normalising the dominance of motor vehicles in our neighbourhoods, and prevented sustainable transport expansion.

@garethdennis.uk

The boys weren't too happy when I interrupted their lunch and told them to move it, but they soon hopped up when I got the camera out. There's no excuse to do this: pedestrians, buggies and wheelchairs have a hard enough time with our awful urban design as it is.

@garethdennis.uk

I talk a lot about major transport investment, but one of the biggest bangs for the buck policy-wise would be a full pavement parking ban and more rigid enforcement of traffic rules. Enforcement is so lax that this stuff is just completely normalised now, and it's unacceptable.

a YSS Scaffolding truck parked on double yellows and blocking a pavement in Tang Hallan MG5 parked fully on the pavement as if it's a parking spot, blocking buggies from passing
@dexerto.bsky.socialReposted by @garethdennis.uk

Amazon users are discovering a bizarre "About You" page that reveals what the company thinks it knows about them One woman found Amazon had determined she "has flat buttocks"

@lacksauthority.bsky.socialReposted by @garethdennis.uk

never the wrong time for this classic

Screenshot of a tweet by @RobbtKraft reading “scientist: "does everyone here know what Watson and Crick discovered?" me from back of room: "Rosalind Franklin's notes"”
Science Magazine@science.org

Exclusive: A new analysis refutes James Watson’s claim that he was the first to recognize the significance of the famed photograph 51. https://scim.ag/4rTKck8

scim.agHow did Rosalind Franklin miss the helix in her iconic DNA image? She didn’tNew analysis refutes James Watson’s claim he was first to recognize significance of famed photograph 51
@prinzrob.bsky.socialReposted by @garethdennis.uk

This is great, though the settlement is a fraction of the harm done. During the pre-Prop 22 era gig driver companies underpriced rides via cheap labor & VC funding, to undercut public transit & get customers hooked. Allowing them to operate illegally contributed to our current transit crisis.

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