#Railnatter

#Railnatter Episode 203: The (long) history of the Transpennine Route Upgrade

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why is the railway network in the North so abysmal? Well, a lot of it comes down to a rather dismal series of bad policy decisions made through the 19...

#Railnatter Episode 202: Digging into the failure stats for the Great Western

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There's plenty of news to catch up on, but the big question we'll be answering this episode is "are track defects a particular problem on the Great We...

#Railnatter Episode 201: Getting ready for the All Ireland Rail Review

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This has been much requested given the number of viewers from Ireland - to warm us up in advance of the release of the All Ireland Strategic Rail Revi...

#Railnatter Episode 200: Every episode of #Railnatter so far (episodes 100-199, summarised)

10 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It's our official 200th episode! How have we got here?! To celebrate, I'm running back through the previous episodes since the Episode 100 round-up -...

#Railnatter Episode 199: Hyperloop One is gone but when will this nonsense die?

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Now I've been going at Hyperloop's jugular for years now, and suffice to say it remains total and utter nonsense unworthy of any technological debate ...

#Railnatter Episode 198: Should Britain stop closing the railway at Christmas?

27 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Now this one really is festive - and it will be live, so you are very much encouraged to bring along your favourite festive tipple... We're asking the...

#Railnatter Episode 197: The Tubular Tale Of Torksey Viaduct

20 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Gather round the hearth for the first of our (still live!) festive episodes... This time we are exploring the story of the Torksey Viaduct, a tale whi...

#Railnatter Episode 196: A rage-turn of the UK’s ”Plan for Drivers”

13 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The UK government's "Plan For Drivers" didn't end up being as popular as they thought it might be... For a festive treat, this week's episode is doing...

#Railnatter Episode 195: How to draw transit maps in PowerPoint

06 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lots of people have been asking for this one! You may notice I use a lot of maps and diagrams on here, on Twitter, and elsewhere too... People act sur...

#Railnatter Episode 194: Digging into Britain’s passenger rail usage data

29 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Department for Transport have stopped up the datafeed that gives us the UK's full rail passenger ridership, so instead we're going to take a whizz...

#Railnatter Episode 193: An illustrated history of Jersey’s tram and railways

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week, friend of the show Zach joins us to talk about the tramways and railways of Jersey, what they looked like at their zenith and what became o...

#Railnatter Episode 192: A page-turn through the Salisbury rail crash report

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Two years ago, two Class 158 trains crashed into each other at Salisbury Tunnel Junction following an extreme storm. This week, we'll read through the...

#Railnatter Episode 191: It’s forty years since the UK built its first high speed line

08 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On the 3rd October 1983, the UK's first modern high speed line was fully opened between Doncaster and York... Chris Valkoinen from the @NatRailwayMuse...

#Railnatter Episode 190: Thirty years of privatisation and what should happen next

01 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On the 5th November 1993 (remember, remember, etc) the Railways Act 1993 received royal assent, and the wheels were truly set in motion for the atomis...

#Railnatter Episode 189: What the heck else has been happening?! (it’s a news ep!)

25 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's been ages since we've properly caught up with the news, so here's a massive run through of everything that has caught my eye since before I disap...

#RailNatter Episode 188: Why is UK infrastructure so slow and costly to build?

18 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In what will certainly not be the only episode we do on the title subject, I wanted to chew through the research done by Sam Dumitriu and Ben Hopkinso...

#RailNatter Episode 187: HS2 has been cancelled, so what happens next? (a Q&A)

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Well, as predicted by me in 2018, and then essentially confirmed as inevitable two years ago on release of the Integrated Rail Plan, this Conservative...

#RailNatter Episode 186: Putting geofencing to good use to improve track safety

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We are joined by the founder and CEO of Tended, Leo Scott Smith, to talk about how you turn an idea into a solution that can save lives... And we'll t...

#RailNatter Episode 185: Why the UK aviation industry is in steep decline

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In what might prove to be another cornerstone episode of #RailNatter, Dr Alex Chapman from  @theneweconomics  discusses his research into the econom...

#RailNatter Episode 184: A Wander Around Wonderlab (the NRM’s new gallery)

22 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Join @MrTimDunn and me as we dash around the @NatRailwayMuseum's new gallery - Wonderlab - in the only way we both know how... Chaotically! We have th...

#RailNatter Episode 183: The Belgrade-Bar railway, Kolašin to Bar

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's the finale of our three-part odyssey through the former Yugoslavia, following one of the world's most scenic railways from Belgrade in present-da...

#RailNatter Episode 182: Electric vehicle chargers should be kept off pavements

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Leo Murray has finally joined us to talk about the latest invasion of car infrastructure onto our pavements - that's right, electric vehicle charging ...

#RailNatter Episode 181: The Belgrade-Bar railway, Užice to Kolašin

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's the second of a three-part odyssey through the former Yugoslavia, following one of the world's most scenic railways from Belgrade in present-day ...

#RailNatter Episode 180: Ban Private Jets, Make The World Better

23 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I'm very pleased this week to have been joined by Hannah Lawrence from Stay Grounded, talking about the legitimacy of flying, the inequality of flying...

#RailNatter Episode 179: The Belgrade-Bar railway, Belgrade to Užice

16 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's the first of a three-part odyssey through the former Yugoslavia, following one of the world's most scenic railways from Belgrade in present-day S...

#RailNatter Episode 178: How do you build a modern train simulator game?

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week, we're joined by two of the Dovetail Games team to talk all things train simulation... Matt Peddlesden (executive producer) and Joseph Roger...

#RailNatter Episode 177: Are any of the ”new” HS2 eastern leg options good?

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

HS2 has, once again, been in the news, now that the Infrastructure Projects Authority (not beer related) has said the project may be unachievable, whi...

#RailNatter Episode 176: A Week In The Life Of A Railway Managing Director

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week #RailNatter is joined by the managing director of ScotRail - or rather, of Scotland's Railway, the alliance of organisations that run rail s...

#RailNatter Episode 175: Dave Grohl Takes The Train (and other news stories)

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's a news episode, and there's so much to catch up on... more HS2 mess, bad on-demand buses, the continuing demise of Translohr, the dreadful Odisha...

#RailNatter Episode 174: How to make railway fandom a bit more inclusive

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We've the delight this week of being joined by Emily Turner of  @roundelroundwego  to talk about railway and transport fandom, what it is, how some ...

#RailNatter Episode 173: The Great British Ticket Office Closure

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In a very last minute change to the schedule, we are in fact going to do a good old fashioned #RailNatter Q&A on today's horrible news about ticke...

#RailNatter Episode 172: A Case Study In Being Wary Of The Hydrogen Hype

28 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week we are joined by Juliet Phillips from E3G to talk about how hydrogen has been disrupting the home heating market... and not for the better. ...

#RailNatter Episode 171: It’s The 120th Birthday Of The Windscreen Wiper

21 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's a fun one, and some engineering history for you all... 120 years ago, give or take a few days, the patent was placed for what would become the mo...

#RailNatter Episode 170: What went wrong at the National College for High Speed Rail?

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In sad news, a vital facility for plugging the UK rail skills gap has been abandoned to rot... But why? We'll talk about how the college came about, i...

#RailNatter Episode 169: Achieving zero emissions with more mobility and less mining

07 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week we are talking all things mobility and mining, and we've the absolute pleasure of being joined by Thea Riofrancos, Associate Professor of Po...

#RailNatter Episode 168: Driverless lies leave Tesla in a muddle

31 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Okay, so we won't just be talking about Elon Musk fumbling the bag... It's a news episode and there's plenty to catch up on! Enjoyed this? Please do c...

#RailNatter Episode 167: Why do crossing noses crack?

24 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our very special pilgrimage site of Colton Junction suffered a catastrophic (but all too common) failure this week, and so it seems like a good chance...

#RailNatter Episode 166: Two half-forgotten but important railway crashes from the 1980s

17 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week we are looking at two rail crashes, one at Pitlochry in Scotland and another at Pershore in Worcestershire, that took place in the 1980s. Th...

#RailNatter Episode 165: What really happened when the Tesco tunnel collapsed?

10 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week's #RailNatter is a return to Gerrards Cross and all the shenanigans that led a tunnel with a Tesco on it to collapse onto a live railway... ...

#RailNatter Episode 164: Should you go fast or slow over a collapsed rail bridge?

03 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's an age-old question... A rail bridge is out, only the rails are left, so do you take the train fast or slow over the bridge? There's a lot to thi...

#RailNatter Episode 163: Just how much more public transport does the UK need?

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last week, the TUC published their report "Public transport fit for the climate emergency" and, in classic #RailNatter style, we are going to sift thr...

#RailNatter Episode 162: Using weird transport systems to break the #NotAMetro sorter

19 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's another #NotAMetro episode! This time, though, we are diving into the strangest transport systems to see if we can break the #NotAMetro sorter......

#RailNatter Episode 161: The Five Ways That High Speed 2 Should Have Been Better

12 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As one of the UK's most prominent pro-HS2 voices, you might be under the impression that I think the proposals (the pre-Integrated Rail Plan ones, any...

#RailNatter Episode 160: Reshaping At 60, and Beeching’s Real Legacy

05 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Last week was the sixtieth anniversary of the release of The Reshaping of British Railways, and everyone was talking about it... I had to dig deeper i...

#RailNatter Episode 159: Why Britain’s railway headquarters WON’T be in Derby

29 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's a news episode! We're headlining with talking about the Great British Railways HQ announcement - apparently, they will be basing 100 roles (?) in...

#RailNatter Episode 158: There’s no such thing as the ”last mile problem”

22 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We're back! This week we return to the studio to attempt to demystify the supposedly intractable "last mile problem" that is oft repeated by policymak...

#RailNatter Episode 157: Why does the UK find it so hard to integrate transport modes?

15 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We talk about it a lot, but what is "integrated transport" when it isn't just a meaningless buzzword? Why is the UK so bad at doing it? Transport res...

#RailNatter Episode 156: What’s happening at the National Railway Museum?

08 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The @NatRailwayMuseum in York is hallowed ground for me and is loved by nearly a million visitors a year, but it has always struggled with being more ...

#RailNatter Episode 155: Perfection and imperfection on the Underground

01 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After nearly three years, Luke Agbaimoni returns to #RailNatter to talk about his second book, "London Underground Symmetry & Imperfections". Once aga...

#RailNatter Episode 154: An Odyssey of Historical Curiosity

22 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This week, I'm delighted to be joined by Bob Gwynne, the National Railway Museum's associate curator, on an odyssey of historical curiosity, picking o...

#RailNatter Episode 153: High Speed 2 - taking a look inside a tunnel boring machine

15 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Precisely one year ago, a few folks and I had the delight of a tour inside one of HS2's tunnel boring machines as it scoured its way underneath Long I...

#RailNatter Episode 152: How Britain’s post-war intercity rail network should have looked

08 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After WW2 and nationalisation, Britain's railway operations essentially assumed their 1923 structure and shape, and this may not have led to the best ...

#RailNatter Episode 151: How does modal shift work?

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

I talk about it a lot, but what is modal shift, how does it work, and why is it both a critical tool and a critical outcome of enhancing and expanding...

#RailNatter Episode 150: Things Are Going Just Great

25 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Returning champion Bonnie Price is joining us to go through The News, since quite a bit has been happening since the holidays. Government data obfusca...

#RailNatter Episode 149: Light Rail Does Not Exist (and other #NotAMetro fun)

18 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

People are still talking about "light railways" as if those actually, meaningfully exist. In this episode, I'll explain why THEY DON'T! We'll look at...

#RailNatter Episode 148: Every* way that the Railways Act 1993 has resulted in today’s mess

11 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's the 30th anniversary year of the Railways Act 1993 - the legal instrument that formally privatised Britain's railway system. In the first of prob...

#RailNatter Episode 147: European railways and the ”implementation gap”

04 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Happy New Year! #RailNatter is kicking off 2023 with a visit from Jon Worth, online communications and policy specialist, who has been blogging and vl...

#RailNatter Episode 146: An Advent of Oddities

28 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Yuletide greetings all! This time, you lovely lot are getting a live show in the midst of the holidays, as we are joined by returning champion Emily T...

#RailNatter Episode 145: A Mostly British History of Concrete Sleepers

21 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week, #RailNatter is diving back into the Deep Lore of Railways, with a proper techy session on the origin of concrete sleepers (starting interna...

#RailNatter Episode 144: Should We Abolish The Treasury?

14 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's #RailNatter is finally tackling the big question: should we abolish the Treasury? Luckily, Stian Westlake is joining us to attempt to give...

#RailNatter Episode 143: Amtrak Joe Lets The Side Down (and other tales of woe)

07 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Well, he only went and did it. The USA's "most labor friendly president" has just used executive legislation to break a strike and ensure rail workers...

#RailNatter Episode 142: Where The North Needs Wires (a guide to Northern electrification)

30 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week, #RailNatter is joined by returning champion Simon Kendler to talk all things electrification... Where should wires go? When should they go ...

#RailNatter Episode 141: The Big Budget Meltdown (and what’s next for the UK)

23 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The UK has had another budget - it may, on the face of it, have seemed like a return to the boring nothingness of pre-Boris times, but it actually mea...

#RailNatter Episode 140: The permanence of the permanent way and why people prefer trams to buses

16 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's #RailNatter sees returning champion Dr Kevin Tennent help us tackle one of the big questions in the transport world... Why do people prefe...

#RailNatter Episode 139: How to fix Britain’s broken railways

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's #RailNatter sees the return of GUESTS (now the technology is mostly fixed)... We've the pleasure of Tom Haines-Doran's company, talking a...

#RailNatter Episode 138: That time an HST derailed TWICE in Dalwhinnie (a page-turn)

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

RAIB recently published their report into the derailment of an High Speed Train at Dalwhinnie on the Highland Main Line... Thankfully this happened at...

#RailNatter Episode 137: Taking the train from York to Mansfield (only to drive back again)

26 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I'm off on US shenanigans right now, so here's a very strange #RailNatter where I meander from York to Mansfield on the train, then drive back again. ...

#RailNatter Episode 136: A look at (probably) all of Britain’s moveable railway bridges

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's #RailNatter is talking swing bridges, bascule bridges, sliding bridges... Because we're attempting to provide an exhaustive list of Britai...

#RailNatter Episode 135: What happened when cracks grounded the Hitachi UK fleet?

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week, #RailNatter is dipping into what already feels like ancient history... The Hitachi UK train fleet was grounded by cracking over a year ago,...

#RailNatter Episode 134: What might/should UK Labour’s ”nationalised” railway look like?

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We're back in the studio for this week's episode, and not a moment too soon... The UK @Labour Party has formally announced that it is retaining its po...

#RailNatter Episode 133: Skills gap? What skills gap? 3

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's #RailNatter comes to you from the @London Transport Museum - and I'm very pleased to say I'm joined by not one, not two but THREE @Young R...

#RailNatter Episode 132: US railroads can be Bad, Actually

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we are joined by none other than Justin Roczniak (a.k.a. @donoteat01 from @Well There's Your Problem Podcast), who will guide us through eve...

#RailNatter Episode 131: New government, new ministers, but what’s next for UK rail?

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Well, a lot has happened in the last month. A new Prime Minister. A new Secretary of State for Transport. New ministers. And given that our special bo...

#RailNatter Episode 130: How engineers made the Great Western Britain’s first 125mph railway line

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Britain's first modern high speed line may have been the Selby Diversion. Its first 300km/h line may have been High Speed 1. But the first inter-city ...

#RailNatter Episode 129: Not quite ten of mainland Europe’s missing high speed rail links

31 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jon Stone and I are joining the dots in this week's #RailNatter... Where on our side of Europe would really benefit from a new high speed link? We tr...

#RailNatter Episode 128: Have Stadler really built Britain’s best train fleet?

24 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's #RailNatter is answering the ultimate (?) question - are Stadler's FLIRTs Britain's best train? Joining me on this quest shall be friend ...

#RailNatter Episode 127: Avanti and the ”unofficial strikes” (yes, it’s a News episode)

17 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Much has been happening in the world of transport, so it's time to pause, take stock and catch up with current happenings again... We'll be talking a...

#RailNatter Episode 126: The Transport Select Committee’s Integrated Rail Plan report

10 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's a #RailNatter page-turn again - and we're sinking our metaphorical teeth into the Transport Select Committee's Integrated Rail Plan (a.k.a. #Rail...

#RailNatter Episode 125: What if the InterCity 125 had never existed?

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's been over two years since we've done a proper alternative history episode (Episode 7 was on what might have happened if the APT had made it) so f...

#RailNatter Episode 124: Railways and modernity in Scandinavia

27 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For quite a long time, Scandinavia has been a quiet hub of railway modernity - indeed, Sweden had the most per-kilometre electrification in the world ...

#RailNatter Episode 123: A collection of railway watches and where to find them

20 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Well I am very pleased to say that this week, we are joined in #RailNatter towers by podcaster extraordinaire Alice Caldwell-Kelly (famed for @Trashfu...

#RailNatter Episode 122: Shapps’ terrible signalling tweet (and the VLR Q&A)

13 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Well a lot has happened in the world since we last did a news segment, so it's another general news catch-up for this week's #RailNatter... We'll focu...

#RailNatter Episode 121: What is Very Light Rail and is it any good?

06 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's a question you've all been asking for a while - what is VLR, and is it any good? Well, tonight's #RailNatter will hopefully answer that question!...

#RailNatter Episode 120: Rail Live 2022!

29 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's Rail Live 2022 - and so I'm sending you another pre-recorded #RailNatter from the past! Rather than running about like a headless chicken as I d...

#RailNatter Episode 119: A quick history of UK rail strike action

22 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

STRIKES! Solidarity to all RMT rail workers out on strike right now... I'm at Rail Live today, so I've pre-recorded this week's #RailNatter as a sort ...

#RailNatter Episode 118: Goofy American Gadgetbahns from the 1970s

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we have the honour and pleasure of being joined by Alexandra Rose (@bigmoodenergy) to talk about a long list of rather goody gadgetbahns fro...

#RailNatter Episode 117: Doing a better job of categorising urban transport systems

08 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's #RailNatter is diving back into the messy world of categorising urban transport systems... And I think I've cracked it! Gone shall be "li...

#RailNatter Episode 116: A new north-south main line for Wales (without maps because this is a podcast)

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For some reason, our old #RailNatter on the Welsh railway network went viral earlier this year, so I thought I'd take the chance to dig into the culmi...

#RailNatter Episode 115: Crossrail isn’t a Tube line, the Tube map needs retiring, etc

25 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In a change to the published schedule, #RailNatter is heading to London because Crossrail (known by some as the Elizabeth line line) has just opened a...

#RailNatter Episode 114: So Just What Branding Should Britain’s Railways Have Anyway?

18 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's #RailNatter should be a fun one... We are looking at what branding Britain's railways should have in a post-GBR world. Should everything ...

#RailNatter Episode 113: The Carmont derailment (a deep dive into the final report) 4

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

CRASHWORTHINESS AND CONCLUSIONS The RAIB report from the Carmont rail crash has been released, and just as we worked our way through the interim repo...

#RailNatter Episode 112: Network Rail’s modular design for small and medium stations

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's #RailNatter does what it says on the tin... I'll have spent the morning at a press session looking at the new modular station design that ...

#RailNatter Episode 111: The end of ScotRail’s private life

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week #RailNatter is joined by Professor Iain Docherty, Dean for the Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of Stirling and transport po...

#RailNatter Episode 110: The Carmont derailment (a deep dive into the final report) 3

20 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

OTHER CONTRIBUTING FACTORS The RAIB report from the Carmont rail crash has been released, and just as we worked our way through the interim report, t...

#RailNatter Episode 109: Catching up on (more) current happenings

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It only took a few weeks, but we've fallen hopelessly behind with The News again, which means we need a catch-up... So #RailNatter shall be filling us...

#RailNatter Episode 108: The Carmont derailment (a deep dive into the final report) 2

06 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

CRISIS MANAGEMENT The RAIB report from the Carmont rail crash has been released, and just as we worked our way through the interim report, this week'...

#RailNatter Episode 107: Getting involved - and STAYING involved - with transport policy

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's #RailNatter, Harry Burr is joining us to talk about his experiences as a very young sustainable transport policy advocate who has alre...

#RailNatter Episode 106: The Carmont derailment (a deep dive into the final report) 1

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

INTRODUCTION AND CDM REGULATIONS The RAIB report from the Carmont rail crash has been released, and just as we worked our way through the interim rep...

#RailNatter Episode 105: The UK must decentralise power to make public transport better

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week's #RailNatter is looking for solutions rather than problems, and joining us is friend of the show Jon Stone (the Independent's policy corres...

#RailNatter Episode 104: Why driverless Tube trains will never work

09 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Seeing as the RMT have been on strike following Grant Shapps' blatant attempt to undermine their bargaining power as part of his deal with Transport f...