What a load of whinning bollocks. Don't give up the day job. Let TfL get on with Crossrail 2. The use of Oliver Postgate's music is another insult.  "Very unique " indeed. Incoherent twaddle.

Business case analysis will be the death of us all.

GB has the one of the highest platform standard heights in the world, how the hell can't manufacturers other than Stadler make trains to conform to that?

The GW fast platforms at Ealing Broadway, are only really used by Elizabeth Line trains when there engineering works on the slow/relief platforms. Happened a lot when they were building it.

One of the ways to make GWML trains not call on the Liz line platforms is to extend the Liz’s CBTC(?) signalling to OOC - most if not all the route into Paddington is 6 tracked (and if it isn’t there’s room to), hand two over segregated solely for the Liz (which will be running every current Pad terminator to OOC), which allows a 4 track throat for the GWML from Paddington all the way to OOC, which considering it’d then immediately narrow to 2 for the rest of the way to Reading and onwards seems more than generous.

Also by that point there’s very little freight (I’ve never seen anything go in or out of the concrete depot by Royal Oak portal but happy to be corrected, maybe a flat crossing over the Liz tracks for the rare workings?)

It's like the gauge wars all over again!!

Thought it was fitting in your episode on Leeds that you pointed to all the new blocks of flats going up without any mass transit provision. Read an article in the Economist last year critiquing the Treasury's decades of underinvestment in Leeds, and the reporter made the point that on the surface the city seems to be doing OK - any Treasury mandarin getting the train up there on a fact-finding mission will walk out of the station and go "oh there's Pret, there's loads of flats going up, clearly this place doesn't need our help". Just a total lack of understanding of the deeper factors at play, and the desperate need to invest ahead of development.

So they built non-standard stations on the line because some berk decided that having only one train builder willing to build low-floor trains would make Adam Smith sad? This is why we can't have nice things. A trivial local example of a similar problem is the platform-train interface at Partick station; it's on a curve and boarding westbound trains can be a bit of a stretch even for people with functioning legs due to the cant. Is there much through-traffic on that line requiring the cant or could it be done away with? All the SPT services stop there but I don't know about freight.

Love your badge

Maybe an XR core underground extension to Heathrow Airport Jn would be good then you can move the XR stoppers onto those lines. The GWML locals run out to Bedwyn and Oxford, although most start and end at the limit of electrifactions of Newbury and Didcot. GWR operates overnight stoppers between Reading and Paddington calling almost all stops, between around 00:00 and 06:00. Only GA 720s call at the intermidate stops berween Shenfield and Stratford even then it is just the Romford.

A great live episode last night @GarethDennisTV and a really clear and concise letter from the Campaign for level boarding. I was prepared to be angry (this subject is personal for me) - but I actually came away content that this is the least bad option. Well done to Philip and to you and your colleagues at the Campaign.

Being from next-door (Paris), I'm not that well versed in UK politics and decision-making, but from what I understood Armpit is the Voldemort of the rail and good transportation world, right?

It also seems like that contrary to common beliefs, France appears to be a lot less centralized, in practice, than England. Cause French cities outside of Île-de-France (Greater Paris area) aren't financially limited anywhere near as much by central government as English cities outside of Greater London.
The state almost automatically participates in the budget when cities have designed a comprehensive transportation project, whether it's tram or even metro.
Maybe it is because building costs are quite a lot more reasonable?
Like Toulouse's 3.2 billion euro new metro line C, which is fairly cheap given it's 27 km long, 21-22 of which in tunnels (mostly deep), 5 km on a viaduct, and with 21 stations.

Couldn't UK / England cities have like a mechanism for infrastructure funding that couldn't be so easily blocked by a ghostly lord in London?

Applaud your advocacy for improving access by people with restricted mobility.  And I love your badge ❤ 🇵🇸

I did always think the step up at ealing broadway was a bit high

04:46 are those DB ICEs coming out of the station? (at least their design, white body with a red stripe)

Can we get a banana for scale to get an idea of how big the gaps are? It's hard to tell without.

My suggestion would be to lower only a set of platform door openings in the middle of the platform on the central section. An equivalent of 2-3 existing carriages length in the middle of the train could use shorter carriages with 915 mm boarding height.

will old oak common have emergency Elizabeth line turn around facilities. at least in the westbound direction is necesary in the eastbound ones maybe not.

Given the generally higher cost and complexity of low-floor trains, a nation-wide standard of 1100 mm platforms should be implemented.  The long-term costs would probably equal out.  Not to mention enabling all existing stock to finish out their lives reliably.

I have to say, I'm surprised at the 800s being "cut short" given that they are still being delivered (805 and 810 classes), and the newer versions apparently doing well.  Not to mention that they are based on a very successful and reliable design in use in Japan.

Forgive me if I'm being ignorant but why exactly was low floor preferable compared to just raising platforms across the country to match the height of our existing train floors? As far as I'm aware, there is not a unified platform height currently due to things being built in different eras anyway (might be wrong on this front). With how government dislikes expenditure I highly doubt we're going to see mass train replacements soon, especially given the relatively recent introduction of many fleets.

I absolutely agree that accessibility needs to be high priority, having previously spent an extended period of time being wheelchair bound myself I'm all too aware of how much of a pain it can be to use the rail network. I just worry that this is going to be another half a century long venture and in the meantime we'll just end up with a horrid mish mash of standards.

Regardless of the above, I completely agree that it's ridiculous that stations along the GWML and GEML were not at least partially modified for ease of boarding, especially considering the core section, as you say.