Dr Jeffrey Howard 🇺🇦

It's good to get out of the house sometimes and decompress!

First look inside 'amazing' new DLR trains with USB charging points and air-con The trains also provide passengers with real-time travel updates and walk-through carriages for staff and inspectors

An exciting milestone for travel in East and South London. The first of 54 brand-new DLR trains is now in service, featuring:

✅ Walk-through carriages
✅ Air-con
✅ Mobile charging points

These new trains will support thousands of new homes and jobs and improve journeys.

My partner's sister is in London with her daughters and I was called "Uncle Jeff" for the first time in my life. As an only child, this is weirdly a big moment and I didn't expect it to give me all the feels. 😭

On my way to Antwerp for the European Transport Conference! #ETCAntwerp2025

I’m very much looking forward to the permanent pedestrianisation of Oxford Street.

I’ve discovered that TfL has a coffee (not tea) culture and all of my individual meetings thus far have been over coffee. This is great as it’s my personal stlye for meetings and I’m loving it (or maybe that’s the caffeine talking). This is a far better fit than Rail Partners (which I loved). 🚇 🚍 🚖

Oh and, yeah, life announcement: I landed a job as a planner at Transport for London. 🥳

I’m always excited to start a new job but, as I start at Transport for London today, there’s a level of excitement and curiosity that I’ve not experienced on a first day since I was 22 heading to the Chicago Transit Authority for the first time. That’s a great feeling to have.

Agreed

That looks more creepy than useful.

Gross.

That's the district I vote in (as US citizen living overseas, I'm registered in St. Joseph Township where my parent's live). I can't wait to kick out Huizenga.

110% agree.

I was talking to a friend who is in the construction industry yesterday about how long construction projects take in the UK. Everything here seems to take at least twice as long as they do in the US. I have no idea why that is, but I find the UK incredibly frustrating. Everything here is slow.

Also Da Pope

Da Pope

What do Walt Disney, Oprah, Michael Jordan, Barack Obama (the first black US president), and Da Pope (the first American pope) have in common? Oh, right. Chicago.

I'm not Catholic, but having a fellow Chicagoan as Pope is pretty fucking cool. Long live Da Pope!

A Chicagoan for Pope? I’ll allow it!

I absolutely loved living in Andersonville! It's one of the things I miss about Chicago!

Always been more of a fan of gun oil myself.

This is a great video highlighting Rail Partners' achievements over the past few years (I even make a few appearances). I've been collecting my thoughts now that it's over and Day 1 of funemployment has begun. Kicking around the idea of restarting my blog, so I'll see how that goes.

Last official day at Rail Partners. 😢

The RTA is seeking interns for Summer 2025! 💼☀️ View open positions and apply now by visiting css-rtachicago-prd.inforcloudsuite.com/hcm/Candidat...

Definitely not with a health minister like him that is sympathetic to conversion therapy.

I'm sure NHS and Streeting would be happy if I fucked off and died because I'm bipolar. One less person to annoy them for treatment. Not that I've ever been treated for in the 8+ years I've lived here - not for lack of trying. Wait, maybe the gov does want me to die. 🤔

Been having too much fun in Porto to post, but super excited for my tour and tasting at Caves Cáves!

Heartbreaking. #StandWithUkraine

I love the random question my mom asks me. Today it was: "Tell me the top three things you miss not living in Chicago anymore." That's actually a good question! Here are my three: My Chicago friends, Andersonville (my neighbourhood), and 24/7/365 subway service. No running for the 'L' at midnight!

I'm assuming the seats won't align with the windows, either, like the rolling stock we have now. Hopefully they won't have those LNER ironing board seats, either.