Thomas Ableman
@freewheeling.info
🚇 Was Strategy & Innovation Director Transport for London
🖊️ Freewheeling Blog / Podcast www.freewheeling.info/blog
SUBSTACK: Freewheeling Bitesize: https://freewheelingbitesize.substack.com/ & History of Europe in 75 Railway Journeys http://bit.ly/3EQNOPA
🖊️ Freewheeling Blog / Podcast www.freewheeling.info/blog
SUBSTACK: Freewheeling Bitesize: https://freewheelingbitesize.substack.com/ & History of Europe in 75 Railway Journeys http://bit.ly/3EQNOPA
Pinned
Thomas Ableman
@freewheeling.info
· May 4
Welcome to A HISTORY OF EUROPE IN 75 RAILWAY JOURNEYS
Riding the rails through 1,000 years of European history
open.substack.com
My happy place is the compartment of a European train, with a cup of coffee in one hand and a history book in the other.
Hence a Substack exploring European history based on my travels.
Each month the story of a different period through the prism of a ride.
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
Hence a Substack exploring European history based on my travels.
Each month the story of a different period through the prism of a ride.
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
When the Manchester Guardian calls, the people of the North heed the call. And if those people are me, we inject Manchester Liberalism, even from across the Pennines, right back in to the paper of Northern record. Get your fill. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Britain’s cities are desperate for better transport. Why is Westminster derailing our plans in Leeds? | Thomas Forth
A long-promised tram network has been pushed back to the late 2030s – unless we build local, northern growth will be snuffed out, says Thomas Forth, co-founder of tech firm The Data City
www.theguardian.com
December 23, 2025 at 4:40 PM
When the Manchester Guardian calls, the people of the North heed the call. And if those people are me, we inject Manchester Liberalism, even from across the Pennines, right back in to the paper of Northern record. Get your fill. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
Canceling the northern leg of HS2 was an act of insane self-harm
Industry insiders are concerned that fewer, shorter non-tilting trains are on order for HS2 — and that journey times will return to those of the 1990s
Why HS2 may lead to smaller, slower trains on west coast main line
Industry insiders are concerned that fewer, shorter non-tilting trains are on order for HS2 — and that journey times will return to those of the 1990s
www.thetimes.com
December 20, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Canceling the northern leg of HS2 was an act of insane self-harm
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
Agreed - a panicky PM overrode cross-party parliamentary support. Completely unacceptable.
December 20, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Agreed - a panicky PM overrode cross-party parliamentary support. Completely unacceptable.
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
The BBC getting screwed over by the Far Right they empowered is a depressing example of consequences.
December 16, 2025 at 8:42 AM
The BBC getting screwed over by the Far Right they empowered is a depressing example of consequences.
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
That's why we need to be talking about access to opportunity instead of fetishizing rail technologies. The access frame will help pick the great rail projects, but often the answer will be bus projects. It's the path away from expensive magical thinking. 10/10 humantransit.org/basics-acces...
Basics: Access, or the Wall Around Your Life — Human Transit
What if we planned public transit with the goal of freedom? Well, it’s hard to improve things that you can’t measure, but now it’s becoming possible to measure freedom, or as we call it in transport ...
humantransit.org
December 12, 2025 at 5:42 PM
That's why we need to be talking about access to opportunity instead of fetishizing rail technologies. The access frame will help pick the great rail projects, but often the answer will be bus projects. It's the path away from expensive magical thinking. 10/10 humantransit.org/basics-acces...
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
This week's @freewheeling.info podcast about an award-winning, council owned bus company in one of the poorest parts of the country is a great listen.
Having sat on the TfGM "board" for a couple of years in the 2010s, the challenges of reporting up to councillors rang a few bells.
Having sat on the TfGM "board" for a couple of years in the 2010s, the challenges of reporting up to councillors rang a few bells.
December 13, 2025 at 7:20 AM
This week's @freewheeling.info podcast about an award-winning, council owned bus company in one of the poorest parts of the country is a great listen.
Having sat on the TfGM "board" for a couple of years in the 2010s, the challenges of reporting up to councillors rang a few bells.
Having sat on the TfGM "board" for a couple of years in the 2010s, the challenges of reporting up to councillors rang a few bells.
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
Yes, and we even have a really excellent and very recent paper demonstrating that Starmer's speech on immigration *this summer* hurt Labour and helped Reform - and yet, here we are...
December 12, 2025 at 12:56 PM
Yes, and we even have a really excellent and very recent paper demonstrating that Starmer's speech on immigration *this summer* hurt Labour and helped Reform - and yet, here we are...
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
In attempting to oppose Reform while also sounding like Reform on Farage’s core issue - immigration - Labour risk facilitating exactly the conditions where a Reform win on a low vote share becomes possible, with Farage uniting the most anti-imm 30% while anti-Farage majority splinters
December 12, 2025 at 12:35 PM
In attempting to oppose Reform while also sounding like Reform on Farage’s core issue - immigration - Labour risk facilitating exactly the conditions where a Reform win on a low vote share becomes possible, with Farage uniting the most anti-imm 30% while anti-Farage majority splinters
During World War Two, a food factory in Liverpool complained that the decision to requisition his premises had been made by an official. not a Minister.
The court confirmed that every decision in a department is made by the Minister.
This has caused trouble.
www.freewheeling.info/blog/adviser...
The court confirmed that every decision in a department is made by the Minister.
This has caused trouble.
www.freewheeling.info/blog/adviser...
“Advisers Advise and Ministers Decide” is Unhelpful - and Plain Wrong — Freewheeling
"Advisers advise and ministers decide!" It's said constantly. And it's just plain wrong. Today's blog post is about how the culture of the civil service drifted so far from other organisations, and w...
www.freewheeling.info
December 8, 2025 at 1:56 PM
During World War Two, a food factory in Liverpool complained that the decision to requisition his premises had been made by an official. not a Minister.
The court confirmed that every decision in a department is made by the Minister.
This has caused trouble.
www.freewheeling.info/blog/adviser...
The court confirmed that every decision in a department is made by the Minister.
This has caused trouble.
www.freewheeling.info/blog/adviser...
Yet again, @serailway.bsky.social High Speed staff show how great they are. My visually-impaired daughter lost her white cane on the train. Driver of the 1040 from St Pancras to Margate delayed the train while he came and helped us look. We failed to find it, so had to return back on the same train.
December 6, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Yet again, @serailway.bsky.social High Speed staff show how great they are. My visually-impaired daughter lost her white cane on the train. Driver of the 1040 from St Pancras to Margate delayed the train while he came and helped us look. We failed to find it, so had to return back on the same train.
"Advisers advise and ministers decide!" It's said constantly. And it's just plain wrong.
So pull up a chair, & let's understand why Government culture is based on a decades-old misunderstanding of a case about a food factory in Liverpool.
www.freewheeling.info/blog/advisers-advise-ministers-decide
So pull up a chair, & let's understand why Government culture is based on a decades-old misunderstanding of a case about a food factory in Liverpool.
www.freewheeling.info/blog/advisers-advise-ministers-decide
“Advisers Advise and Ministers Decide” is Unhelpful - and Plain Wrong — Freewheeling
"Advisers advise and ministers decide!" It's said constantly. And it's just plain wrong. Today's blog post is about how the culture of the civil service drifted so far from other organisations, and w...
www.freewheeling.info
December 5, 2025 at 4:36 PM
"Advisers advise and ministers decide!" It's said constantly. And it's just plain wrong.
So pull up a chair, & let's understand why Government culture is based on a decades-old misunderstanding of a case about a food factory in Liverpool.
www.freewheeling.info/blog/advisers-advise-ministers-decide
So pull up a chair, & let's understand why Government culture is based on a decades-old misunderstanding of a case about a food factory in Liverpool.
www.freewheeling.info/blog/advisers-advise-ministers-decide
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
2 in 3 of Nigel Farage’s current and former partners do not speak English as their first language.
December 3, 2025 at 11:03 PM
2 in 3 of Nigel Farage’s current and former partners do not speak English as their first language.
Caroline Seton, founder of e-bike firm Forest, on being a founder and why we need much (much!) more bike parking
www.freewheeling.info/the-freewhee...
You can find The Freewheeling Podcast on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... and Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4yFWkWG...
www.freewheeling.info/the-freewhee...
You can find The Freewheeling Podcast on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... and Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4yFWkWG...
Bike Sharing with Caroline Seton — Freewheeling
Caroline Seton is the co-founder of the London bike share firm Forest. They’re in unambiguous second place to Lime, the great global bicycle behemoth - but, famously, being second makes a firm try ha...
www.freewheeling.info
December 4, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Caroline Seton, founder of e-bike firm Forest, on being a founder and why we need much (much!) more bike parking
www.freewheeling.info/the-freewhee...
You can find The Freewheeling Podcast on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... and Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4yFWkWG...
www.freewheeling.info/the-freewhee...
You can find The Freewheeling Podcast on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... and Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4yFWkWG...
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
If you're choosing between a free bus service and a good bus service (frequent, convenient, safe, fast, reliable, clean, comfortable), "good" is always the right choice.
December 2, 2025 at 1:22 PM
If you're choosing between a free bus service and a good bus service (frequent, convenient, safe, fast, reliable, clean, comfortable), "good" is always the right choice.
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
Sometimes think that the government should just appoint Alastair Campbell as DG of the BBC, and tell anyone who objects that they’re lucky it wasn’t Seumas Milne.
December 2, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Sometimes think that the government should just appoint Alastair Campbell as DG of the BBC, and tell anyone who objects that they’re lucky it wasn’t Seumas Milne.
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
Expanding airports (while cancelling high-speed rail) is a very poor investment during a climate crisis.
November 30, 2025 at 8:21 PM
Expanding airports (while cancelling high-speed rail) is a very poor investment during a climate crisis.
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
Two more Conservative MP rejects hop over to Reform UK. Jonathan Gullis and Lia Nici.
More and more, Reform UK looks simply as if the Tories ran off stage, then came back on two minutes lates, wearing a comedy moustache-and-glasses disguise. ~AA
uk.news.yahoo.com/former-tory-...
More and more, Reform UK looks simply as if the Tories ran off stage, then came back on two minutes lates, wearing a comedy moustache-and-glasses disguise. ~AA
uk.news.yahoo.com/former-tory-...
Former Tory MP Jonathan Gullis defects to Reform UK
He joins Daniel Jellyman
uk.news.yahoo.com
December 1, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Two more Conservative MP rejects hop over to Reform UK. Jonathan Gullis and Lia Nici.
More and more, Reform UK looks simply as if the Tories ran off stage, then came back on two minutes lates, wearing a comedy moustache-and-glasses disguise. ~AA
uk.news.yahoo.com/former-tory-...
More and more, Reform UK looks simply as if the Tories ran off stage, then came back on two minutes lates, wearing a comedy moustache-and-glasses disguise. ~AA
uk.news.yahoo.com/former-tory-...
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
Under Mahmood's current proposals, presumably would have been deported to Czechoslovakia in 1945, when it was "safe" again.
R.I.P. Tom Stoppard, playwright most famous for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
Born Tomas Straussler in Czechoslovakia he fled his home during the Nazi occupation and found refuge in Britain at the age of eight. He later discovered all four of his grandparents had died in the Holocaust.
Born Tomas Straussler in Czechoslovakia he fled his home during the Nazi occupation and found refuge in Britain at the age of eight. He later discovered all four of his grandparents had died in the Holocaust.
Sir Tom Stoppard, playwright famed for his wit and depth, dies at 88
Winning an Oscar for the screenplay for Shakespeare In Love, he captivated the hearts of audiences for more than six decades.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 29, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Under Mahmood's current proposals, presumably would have been deported to Czechoslovakia in 1945, when it was "safe" again.
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
This is very good. You also don't need to fly for business travel: I've been to Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan and Seville all by train.
What we need to do is to ensure that people have time to do it. (Which might mean we need to think about how we offset childcare for parents away on business travel)
What we need to do is to ensure that people have time to do it. (Which might mean we need to think about how we offset childcare for parents away on business travel)
We're destroying both places and the planet through too much tourism. This is why we need a Frequent Flyer Levy
www.freewheeling.info/blog/cheap-f...
www.freewheeling.info/blog/cheap-f...
Cheap Flights Cost Too Much: How to Make Flying Fair — Freewheeling
There are too many tourists. It’s destroying both places and the planet. It’s time for a Frequent Flyer Levy.
www.freewheeling.info
November 29, 2025 at 12:31 PM
This is very good. You also don't need to fly for business travel: I've been to Brussels, Amsterdam, Milan and Seville all by train.
What we need to do is to ensure that people have time to do it. (Which might mean we need to think about how we offset childcare for parents away on business travel)
What we need to do is to ensure that people have time to do it. (Which might mean we need to think about how we offset childcare for parents away on business travel)
Introduce yourself with 5 cars you've owned
Corgi Mini
Corgi Police Car
Lots of little ones in Sim City
Then nothing for the last 28 years
Corgi Mini
Corgi Police Car
Lots of little ones in Sim City
Then nothing for the last 28 years
Introduce yourself with 5 cars you've owned
*cracks knuckles*
Renault 4
Austin Allegro Equipe
Fiat Strada
Nissan Micra
Mini Cooper Estate
Currently: Škoda Scala, the first time I’ve bought new.
*cracks knuckles*
Renault 4
Austin Allegro Equipe
Fiat Strada
Nissan Micra
Mini Cooper Estate
Currently: Škoda Scala, the first time I’ve bought new.
Mine’s quite boring 😞
Introduce yourself with 5 cars you've owned
Vauxhall Chevette
Ford Orion
Ford Mondeo
Renault Scenic (mk1, mk2 and mk3)
Kia Niro EV
Introduce yourself with 5 cars you've owned
Vauxhall Chevette
Ford Orion
Ford Mondeo
Renault Scenic (mk1, mk2 and mk3)
Kia Niro EV
November 29, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Introduce yourself with 5 cars you've owned
Corgi Mini
Corgi Police Car
Lots of little ones in Sim City
Then nothing for the last 28 years
Corgi Mini
Corgi Police Car
Lots of little ones in Sim City
Then nothing for the last 28 years
We're destroying both places and the planet through too much tourism. This is why we need a Frequent Flyer Levy
www.freewheeling.info/blog/cheap-f...
www.freewheeling.info/blog/cheap-f...
Cheap Flights Cost Too Much: How to Make Flying Fair — Freewheeling
There are too many tourists. It’s destroying both places and the planet. It’s time for a Frequent Flyer Levy.
www.freewheeling.info
November 28, 2025 at 11:05 AM
We're destroying both places and the planet through too much tourism. This is why we need a Frequent Flyer Levy
www.freewheeling.info/blog/cheap-f...
www.freewheeling.info/blog/cheap-f...
What did the Budget mean for transport?
Podcast Budget Special: www.freewheeling.info/the-freewhee...
You can find The Freewheeling Podcast on Apple Podcasts here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... and at Spotify here: open.spotify.com/show/4yFWkWG...
Podcast Budget Special: www.freewheeling.info/the-freewhee...
You can find The Freewheeling Podcast on Apple Podcasts here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... and at Spotify here: open.spotify.com/show/4yFWkWG...
BUDGET SPECIAL with Sir Michael Holden — Freewheeling
The Budget has finally been unveiled. But what does it mean for transport? In this week’s episode, I review the budget with Sir Michael Holden, former Chairman of Directly Operated Railways. We dis...
www.freewheeling.info
November 28, 2025 at 10:19 AM
What did the Budget mean for transport?
Podcast Budget Special: www.freewheeling.info/the-freewhee...
You can find The Freewheeling Podcast on Apple Podcasts here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... and at Spotify here: open.spotify.com/show/4yFWkWG...
Podcast Budget Special: www.freewheeling.info/the-freewhee...
You can find The Freewheeling Podcast on Apple Podcasts here: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t... and at Spotify here: open.spotify.com/show/4yFWkWG...
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
By all means cover the attack lines and rebuttals in the report that follows. But the actual headline here should be not be shaped by either side's partisan briefings.
November 27, 2025 at 1:11 PM
By all means cover the attack lines and rebuttals in the report that follows. But the actual headline here should be not be shaped by either side's partisan briefings.
Reposted by Thomas Ableman
My happy place is the compartment of a European train, with a cup of coffee in one hand and a history book in the other.
Hence a Substack exploring European history based on my travels.
Each month the story of a different period through the prism of a ride.
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
Hence a Substack exploring European history based on my travels.
Each month the story of a different period through the prism of a ride.
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
Welcome to A HISTORY OF EUROPE IN 75 RAILWAY JOURNEYS
Riding the rails through 1,000 years of European history
open.substack.com
May 4, 2025 at 2:50 PM
My happy place is the compartment of a European train, with a cup of coffee in one hand and a history book in the other.
Hence a Substack exploring European history based on my travels.
Each month the story of a different period through the prism of a ride.
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...
Hence a Substack exploring European history based on my travels.
Each month the story of a different period through the prism of a ride.
open.substack.com/pub/historyo...