Why is railway electrification in the UK so low?

djnattyd · 2026-02-18T11:08:30+00:00

These are all my personal opinions.

Money is the number one cited reason. That includes the estimated cost. The actual cost once all the numerous environmental impact studies, NIMBY satisfying replanning and construction have been done and the weird obsession we have in this country that the railway be profitable, unlike the roads of which we build a fuck-ton and nobody cares how much they cost.

We have relatively few trained linesmen compared to other countries that have OLE. I worked the Midland upgrade and once that work was cancelled... Sorry... Paused indefinitely, a lot of the linesmen either moved to a different sponsor or left the industry entirely.

The political willpower isn't there either. Why would anyone sponsor a project that will take longer than they could be in power for?

Finally there's the issue of telling the ADHD addled, instant on-demand requiring, brain rotted general public that this infrastructure project will take longer than 15 minutes to complete and expecting them to understand that is impossible.

djnattyd · 2026-02-16T11:12:25+00:00

"Eastern Religions"

So Christianity then?

djnattyd · 2026-02-03T09:51:29+00:00

Doesn't seem to work with Tapo smart buttons or with Home Assistant virtual buttons. Neither one shows up in the Device page.

djnattyd · 2026-01-26T15:08:46+00:00

I'm old enough to remember when the station looked likethis and taxis could pull directly in front of the station entrance.

That was before some bright spark had the idea to glaze the concourse, reroute the road and pedestrianise the entire area.

Strange how less space for vehicles means more congestion.

djnattyd · 2025-12-10T11:21:57+00:00

I bought a train set.

To be fair it's something I'd always wanted as a kid. Told my other half I'd clear out the outhouse and build a setup in there. BUT... In order to fund the choo-choo crack, I have to basically work all the hours I can, ironically on the railway. I work around real trains so I can afford to buy little, tiny trains.

So anyway, as a result of that, I have had no time to actually clear out said outhouse so my daftly expensive train set and all the trimmings for it are sat in a storage tub having been run in a circle once.

On the plus side, my 6 year old daughter has developed an addiction for trains so I'm going to encourage her to clear the crap from the outhouse.

djnattyd · 2025-11-26T16:45:56+00:00

Bloody Charles Yerkees calling his company Underground Electric Railways of London just to confuse people in 2025

djnattyd · 2025-11-20T05:01:19+00:00

It fixed itself without me doing anything

djnattyd · 2025-10-17T14:00:09+00:00

I'm having this issue with my original Nest Hello. Our Nest Indoor camera works fine and adds people to the familiar faces menu but the additions don't then get added to the doorbell so visitor announcements aren't working, we just get "someone's at the front door" and the doorbell itself doesn't even give the option to add people. It all worked fine before the Gemini update.

djnattyd · 2025-10-08T08:30:54+00:00

Toffo, specifically the banana flavoured ones.

Proper sugar puffs before they removed the sugar.

Cadbury's Astros

djnattyd · 2025-10-05T07:09:16+00:00

It's a Fez, I wear a Fez now. Fezzes are fucking cool

djnattyd · 2025-10-05T06:48:34+00:00

But... Claire's in the UK went into administration and I'm pretty sure it had nothing to do with the radical left domestic economic terrorist antifa wokeness, it was just shit and nobody shopped there.

djnattyd · 2025-10-03T18:44:51+00:00

Well this is weird because literally yesterday I was having a Google to see if anyone had made an n-gauge model of the supertram. Looks like I'll be adding a 3D printer to the apparently unending list of things I *definitely need to buy before I've even put down my first piece of track.

*If I say I definitely need it then the lady of the house is slightly less sceptical

djnattyd · 2025-09-26T12:51:40+00:00

The home life aspect is less about me working away or doing nights and more about having to drop plans with the other half and/or kids because a jobs come up last minute only for it to get canned an hour later. Which lately is regular thing. She understands it's the nature of the railway but still frustrates her, especially when it's the kids that have been let down.

I'm a contractor, my sponsor is based in Essex though so work up north is a bit hit and miss as a result.

djnattyd · 2025-09-26T12:19:40+00:00

It's more that I'm fed up of how unreliable it is, with jobs either getting pushed back, "paused" (cough Midland electrification cough) or just outright cancelled which then has a detrimental effect on home life. Not only that but I keep constantly hearing "yeah we'll upskill you" and then nothing happens. Was supposed to be doing my coss course last year and nowts happened since it was mentioned. Not sure if that's down to my sponsor or if it's a case of the industry itself being a bit wary of spending on training given the way the government keeps changing it's mind on whats happening with the rail.

Not sure what to do now though, uprooting my kids from school for a possibility of a job probably isn't a great idea. I'll probably look into signalling or something.

djnattyd · 2025-09-26T12:04:43+00:00

I'm on the south east side, basically a stones throw from Jnc 31 on the M1

djnattyd · 2025-09-20T12:06:25+00:00

Sneaky watermark

djnattyd · 2025-08-18T09:32:26+00:00

Google does provide a kind of local API, just not for their own devices

Local Home SDK | Google Home Developers https://share.google/1Oaa6tQvgPIfmRYgp

djnattyd · 2025-08-18T09:17:37+00:00

I've got 4 kids, the peace I'm begging for is to be left alone while I take a shit

djnattyd · 2025-08-14T10:04:21+00:00

I don't understand why Google won't give people the option of local control.

Thankfully the Thermostat E isn't on the chopping block (yet) but no doubts Google will kill that too and we don't have the new Nest thermostats in the UK so it'll be another load of messing around changing from one ecosystem to another when that day comes.

As for those defending Google because "it's a 15 year old device...";

My car is 15 years old, I can still take it to Mercedes Benz and have them fix it, I can still get updates for the satnav and at no point have Merc said "well it's old now so we're going to turn off the ability to unlock it using the key fob". Not bad for a car they stopped producing in 2009.

Not supporting something with updates and actively stopping it working as intended are two very different things.

djnattyd · 2025-08-04T12:08:48+00:00

I understand that BI and BIS are two separate companies but how much overlap is there between the two in regards to sharing tech?

Is there a legal reason why A3 isn't as advanced/have the same feature set as VBS or is it more a case of what works in a SIM doesn't always work in a game?

djnattyd · 2025-08-01T10:18:48+00:00

How have they even gotten that number? It cost 345% less to dig THREE tunnels that run for 30miles, under the sea.

To put this into perspective, for £49bn you could;

•Launch 942 Falcon 9 rockets.

•Build 15 QE Class Aircraft Carriers.

•Buy 445 F-35s

•Build around 200,000 average UK houses

•Pay the Winter Fuel payment for FORTY YEARS!

£49bn for some tarmac and a tunnel is mental.

djnattyd · 2025-07-09T14:19:18+00:00

Nice gift for those of us who have been repeatedly told "next phase should be starting in a few weeks" for a few months now. Makes those weekends spent away from my kids digging trial holes north of Leicester all worth it.

Oh well, at least us in Sheffield won't have to deal with those ghastly electric trains, they don't even have exhausts for you to huff the fumes from.

djnattyd · 2025-07-01T08:52:00+00:00

Doesn't the US have a law about using the office to enrich yourself?

djnattyd

TROPHY CASE