Simon Kendler (also on bsky simonzev.bsky.social)
24.3K posts
@SimonZev
Rail Freight Manager & sustainable transport advocate Travel, rail, transport & languages enthusiast. Mainly here for the trains... He/him Views my own 🌈🛤🚲🕎
Today has been the hottest day in May on record with Kew Gardens provisionally reaching 34.8°C - exceeding the previous highest May temperature in the UK by a full 2 degrees Celsius🌡️ This heat would be exceptional in the UK even in mid summer, let alone in May📈
.@Se_Railway Why only six carriages on the High Speed trains out to Margate? Standing room only after 2 stops and most were left behind. You manage to warn on the app for busy coastal trains and 'take water' but can't foresee extra carriages for outbound Bank Holiday mornings!!!
Funny how there's no Great British Railways | Gatwick Express or Great British Railways | Heathrow Express Does this mean the HX and GX will become part of Great Western and Southern, maybe?
London is the greatest city in the world but one thing it does lack is a good beach. If we're gonna have more days like this we should 1) clean up the water and 2) build a big beach in inner London accessible by tube. (NYC did this in the 1930s) How about along the shore here
OK, let's save the best for last! @HastingsDiesels 1001 storms through Portlethen with 1013 on the rear with 1Z83 Inverness to Edinburgh 23/5/26 with many tones! Come back soon, don't leave it another 69 years as I won't be around to see it 😂😂 @BLSFixtures @87027wolf
The biggest enemies of HS2 were its biggest supporters. It was absurdly over specc-ed from the outset. It should have been conventional 140 mph mainline with continental loading gauge. Initially using parkway stations & built from Manchester.
Oh well, it begins. Here comes decades of hellish liveries
Ironically, HS2 was never even popular with voters *in the north*, they wanted focus on fast local intra-north transport instead, and thought of hS2 as 'for London'. But the entire SW1 ecosystem is so crap at politics/communication they never figured this out in 20 years
My 2023 blog on why I tried so hard to cancel HS2 in Jan 2020. It was a clear disaster and the 'evidence' presented by Cabinet Office/DfT was clearly fraudulent. If you tried to do this in business you'd be jailed. You can see the original chart below with Ben Warner's 'this is bullshit' scribbled on it in the Cabinet room when they presented. You can see the smooth exponential which predicts the need for HS3 then HS4 - everyone in yookay either riding on them or building them! This is how CON-LAB burn your money - and when the Trolley went ahead with it, Labour and Whitehall and FT etc all cheered. Trebles all round for 'the serious grownups'
I forgot how insufferable housing reply guy twitter is…
