I’ve written an article for @worksinprogress.bsky.social about through running. It’s the most cost-effective way of upgrading railway lines in nearly all British cities. worksinprogress.co/issue/the-ma...

The magic of through running - Works in Progress Magazine

Commuter trains often stop at the edge of cities. Building a short tunnel to join them up is often by far the most efficient way to improve a city's transport.

worksinprogress.co

1760: 🇫🇷25 million people 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿5.5 million 2025 🇫🇷68 million 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿56 million If France’s population growth had kept pace with England’s, there would be 250 million Frenchmen and another 320 million abroad. What happened? 🧵 www.worksinprogress.news/p/570-millio...

570 million Frenchmen

France's decline coincided with a collapse in its birth rate – now we know why.

worksinprogress.news

I’ve seen so many people saying that the Supreme Court are a bunch of TERFs. That’s not what happened. Instead, Parliament passed two Acts that weren’t easily reconciled, and the UKSC had to work out what the provisions meant.

SpinningHugo@spinninghugo.bsky.social · last yr.

The thing you should notice the lack of any discussion of what a good social policy would be. Instead, it is the (dull) history of the provisions, and a consideration of the meaning of different clauses. /3

I’ve written a Substack post about why Leeds should have a tram-metro (aka a Stadtbahn), not just a tram. This is what Hannover has. Hannover is the same size as Leeds, and offers a compelling model for better public transport. open.substack.com/pub/springbe...

Leeds doesn’t need a tram. It needs a tram-metro.

Street-running trams in the suburbs, tunnels under the centre.

open.substack.com

I’ve got my crayons out, and have proposed a new Tube line: the Chelsea–Hackney Line. open.substack.com/pub/springbe...

The Chelsea–Hackney Tube Line

A new Tube line to fill in the gaps in the London Underground network

open.substack.com

In an ideal world we’d have built Boris Island, but that idea is dead in the water so Heathrow it is.

I’m sorry but this just sounds like an offcut lyric from either ‘The Best Day’ or ‘Never Grow Up’.

BigSlim@imbigslim.bsky.social · 2y ago

My dreams are still bigger than my fears…

If you went to uni, 1. What was your career goal when you started? 2. Your initial program? 3. If you changed programs, what did you change to? 4. What do you do now? 1. Something in politics or IR 2. Arabic & Hebrew 3. Linguistics while I as at university, and later law 4. Studying for the Bar

Jack Harman@jackharman.bsky.social · 2y ago

If you went to uni, 1. What was your career goal when you started? 2. Your initial program? 3. If you changed programs, what did you change to? 4. What do you do now? 1. Absolutely no idea 2. Physics 3. International Relations & Economics 4. Infrastructure finance

I suppose of the TikTok ban, one has to ask: would you approve of your young sons, young daughters—because girls can scroll as well as boys—scrolling this app? Is it an app you would have lying around your own house? Is it an app that you would even wish your wife or your servants to scroll?

Keir Starmer. He told us how proud he was to have stopped the CPS prosecuting people who took their relatives abroad for assisted dying…

Tim Worthington@outonbluesix.bsky.social · 2y ago

Emergency Questions 133. Who is the most impressive celebrity that ever came to your school? For reasons that are lost to the ages, that I couldn't figure out at the time and can't in retrospect, Ian St. John. He just sort of laughed at his own jokes in assembly then vanished.

Wien Hauptbahnhof, a project several orders of magnitude more complex than Brent Cross West Station, cost some €900 million. There is really something off with infrastructure construction in the UK...

Marco Chitti@chittimarco.bsky.social · 2y ago

Thanks to @borners.bsky.social, I recently discovered that the Brits spent £400 million on the above-ground two-platform Brent Cross West Station (left pic). For comparison, the planned four-platform Segrate Porta Est station in Milan (right pic) is quoted at €80 million.

It’s also wrong, isn’t it? Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings are all in East Sussex but are served by Southern not Southeastern. And Surrey doesn’t get a look-in.

Adam Chapman@adamchapman.bsky.social · 2y ago

In yet another example in my campaign to let the world know that Victoria, and not Euston, is in fact the worst London terminal, how confident are you that you know which historic county any given station is in? No boundaries on the accompanying maps, or any sense of what happens on platform 8.

Make of this what you will.

The fact there’s a street in the City called Little Britain never fails to tickle me

Surprised to learn song ‘APT.’ (ROSÉ and Bruno Mars, 2024) does not refer to the Advanced Passenger Train (British Rail feat. Queasy Rider, 1981)

Distinctly tempted to ask this guy what’s up

I pity learners of English as a second language. ‘Have to do’ and ‘have to do with’ have such very different meanings.

Surely people who bought farmland because of the tax benefits were advised this could happen? Didn’t Clarkson’s wealth adviser / accountant tell him this was a risk?

This website feels like I’ve stepped foot in a time capsule to Twitter ca. 2018, down to the UI. Even the logo looks comfortingly familiar!