I'm joined by not one, not two but THREE guests tonight, as fellow rail industry employees Georgia Haslam, Kostas Kuklys and Katie Williams help demystify the immensely complicated British railway industry...
Find out more about this year's Rail Week here: https://www.railweek.com/
Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://merch.railnatter.uk. Join in the discussion at https://discord.railnatter.uk. You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

I've been teasing this one for ages, but we are finally looking at how HS2 gives Birmingham and the West Midlands a metro system, and what its wider suburban railway network COULD look like... Plus there's a bit of news.
Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://merch.railnatter.uk. Join in the discussion at https://discord.railnatter.uk. You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

Have you heard of Lillian "Curly" Lawrence? Get comfy for a story of genius, wit, charm and tragedy - and of a transgender woman who shaped the model railway scene perhaps more than any other individual.
We'll also touch on LGBTQIA+ history more broadly, dipping into the Railway Museum's oral archives as well as looking at existing exhibits through a different lens.
Here's a link to the project: https://www.railwaymuseum.org.uk/research-and-archive/people-pride-and-progress
Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://merch.railnatter.uk. Join in the discussion at https://discord.railnatter.uk. You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

On Sunday, two trains collided near Adamuz in Spain in an appalling, extremely unlikely and hugely tragic crash, which so far has claimed the lives of 40 people. Enough detail has been released that we can plot out how the two trains derailed with reasonable confidence - and that's what we'll do, using photos and video from the scene.
Rob and Jamie from Podcasting Is Praxis drop in to explore the aftermath of the crash, and how knowing what the derailment looked like doesn't really answer any of the questions over its cause. We also cover a bit of news.
Listen to Praxiscast: https://praxiscast.podbean.com/
Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://merch.railnatter.uk. Join in the discussion at https://discord.railnatter.uk. You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

Northern Powerhouse Rail has been announced by government, again, and this time what's being proposed is even more nebulous than last time... If we ignore Network North, that is. We dig into the details to understand what is being promised, what is new (if anything) and what we've been left since the 2020 high point in UK railway aspirations.
Read the full government release here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/northern-growth-strategy-case-for-change/northern-growth-strategy-case-for-change#northern-powerhouse-rail
Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://merch.railnatter.uk. Join in the discussion at https://discord.railnatter.uk. You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

On 6 September 2024, a freight train derailed over a bridge in Audenshaw in Greater Manchester. At the end of 2025, the RAIB published their report into the crash, looking in detail at the sequence of failures that let to this event. It lays out a series of mistakes and engineering limitations that force us to look more closely at the way we run our railway and train our engineers.
Download the  @railaccidentinvestigationb7617  report here: https://www.gov.uk/raib-reports/report-10-slash-2025-derailment-of-a-freight-train-at-audenshaw
Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://merch.railnatter.uk. Join in the discussion at https://discord.railnatter.uk. You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

We've reached the end of 2025! It's been an extremely difficult year across the board, with some points of light dotted around for nourishment, but I wanted to end with some hope. Also with a bridge collapsing on my head.
Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://merch.railnatter.uk. Join in the discussion at https://discord.railnatter.uk. You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways

Merry Christmas! Raise a glass to all the folk out there this holiday season prodding, building and generally messing about with railways in the freezing cold.
It's a brief, last minute news filler episode really - and we'll cover a few things including West Yorkshire mass transit delays, two Slovak trains playing chicken on the same track and negging the IEA.
Support #Railnatter at https://patreon.com/garethdennis. Merch at https://merch.railnatter.uk. Join in the discussion at https://discord.railnatter.uk. You can also buy my book #HowTheRailwaysWillFixTheFuture: https://bit.ly/HowTheRailways