Matt Harrison

Want to know what’s going right in Britain? Come to the capital, look at the Elizabeth line railway | Jonn Elledge It’s a ‘can-do’ object lesson for the Treasury. And imagine what such ambition could do for the fortunes of Birmingham, Manchester or Leeds, says author Jonn Elledge

the Guardian asked me to write about the Elizabeth Line! 193 comments in 90 minutes! that's gotta be good, right? right?

Great shot!

Oof, nice!

Ah, true!

To be fair, most of the time spent travelling on these will be either in tunnels, or have the view annihilated by huge soundproofed walls. That said, this has got to be one of the most depressingly drab interiors I've ever seen - hopefully that gets rectified...

Leyland National single deck bus in brown and cream

No prizes for guessing where I am today!

Excellent - see you there!

Fantastic!! Yes, will give you a shout tomorrow 😀

OK then, The Greatest Gathering...who's around tomorrow?

🚂 Head's up! Tickets will go on sale for the Heaton 150 open day at 1pm tomorrow - we expect they will sell out fast 👇

media.northernrailway.co.uk/news/tickets...

Clocked that one on the telly too...!

Huge congratulations my friend!

NS opens train station campsite for students who couldn't find living space NS will set up a campsite at Utrecht Central Station for first-year students who weren’t able to find accommodation in the city in time for the university’s orientation period next month. Twenty first...

⛺️ An absolutely stunning little piece of PR courtesy of NS in the Netherlands:

nltimes.nl/2025/07/30/n...

TfL learning lessons from the Burberry Street station controversy Transport for London (TfL) has admitted that last year's temporary brand takeover of Bond Street tube station was confusing for passengers and wasn't handled as well as it could have been.

TfL themselves have admitted that last year’s brand takeover of Bond Street tube station was confusing for passengers and wasn’t handled as well as it could have been: www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/tfl...

It's a little more involved than just outdoor advertising:

"TfL offered...“exclusive sponsorship” of the line, in a deal that “goes far beyond a typical media opportunity”. The “full-line branding”, will extend “from moquette seat fabric and signage to maps and experiential spaces”.

All aboard the Nike Northern line? Why corporate takeovers of London's tube are a terrible idea | Oliver Wainwright Transport for London’s call for sponsorship of the Waterloo & City line throws out the network’s founding principles of public service and good design, says Guardian architecture and design critic Oli...

Couldn't agree more.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

🚂 There will be a range of visiting trains and locos from over the years including the iconic LNER Class A4 steam locomotive, Sir Nigel Gresley.

Tickets available mid-July; look out for further announcements.

More here:
media.northernrailway.co.uk/news/train-o...

🚨 BIG NEWS - we're throwing open the doors to Northern's Heaton TrainCare Centre on 20 & 21 September!

As part of #Railway200 and to celebrate 150 years of the historic depot, we'll be welcoming thousands of visitors to Heaton for a mega-rare look behind the scenes.

PS, I did hit a tractor.

PPS, I know the Reverser is in neutral. I’d finished my drive at this point and naturally posed for the pic 🤣

Driving the Northern class 195/331 simulator

I drove a train today.*

* OK, it wasn’t a real train. But it was about the closest thing you can get to a real train.

This is the first of Northern’s incredible, state of the art, mind-blowingly realistic Class 195/331 simulators which are quite simply - a game changer.

🇮🇹 Centro Direzionale - Business District 🚉
For those that say a new metro station should be simple & austere…

Naples new Line 1 station shows how it can be:
Bright, colourful, bold platforms…
…above ground a beautiful arched wooden structure.
🤩 Stunning. @garethdennis.bsky.social

"The only airport in the center of #Paris is a train station."

I love this ad for the high-speed service from Switzerland to France.

One of the hidden costs of air travel is the dreaded airport transfer...

🛫🚅🧵

Too many places beginning with ‘D’!

LNER Azuma named ‘Darlington’ for Railway 200 sits at Leeds

Darlo train at Leeds! @lner.co.uk

Well and truly fallen off a cliff. Absolutely dire.

Northampton Daimler at Bowland Brewery

I have an uncanny ability - which is to sniff out a vintage bus on any given day out. Nice to see this old girl at Bowland Brewery!

Rail Operations Group class 37 37884 ‘Cepheus’ on platform 7 at York

You can always rely on there being something of interest in York on any given day, but even I was surprised to find ROG’s 37884 ‘Cepheus’ purring away idly on P7 yesterday!

Apparently a quick stopover en route from Derby to Doncaster…

Haha. Absolute staples of so many offices!

Haha. Why are these so utterly crap but brilliant at the same time?

Northern’s mascot, Whistle the Dog in a Newcastle United shirt at Newsham station

Northern class 158 at Newsham station

Northern class 158 under blue skies coming into Newsham station

What a fantastic day on the Northumberland Line! The sun has shone on Newsham as we celebrate the opening of the newest station on our network. Smiles all around!