Tootfinder

Pro-Ukraine partisans sabotage railways in Russia's Volgograd, occupied Crimea, group claims: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/10/proukraine-partisans-sabotage-railways-in.html

It seems the government's rather imperfect plan to renationalise the railways is in some peril due to a counter-offensive from the predatory Train Operating Companies.
They are fighting hard now to get their "open access" applications approved before new legislation comes in. And, if approved, they could lock in privatisation for decades.
@weownit.org.uk .bsky.social @heidialexander.bsky.social

Open letter: stop First Group, Arriva and other private firms clinging on to our railway | We Own It
Private firms like First Group and Arriva are fighting to cling on to our railway. The government must impose a moratorium on approval of new rail contracts with private firms.

What if the railways could promote stability rather than disrupting society? (🇩🇪:🤯)
The Swiss railways explore using batteries on trains to smoothen a.o. peaks related to coordinated train schedules, which facilitate easy and reliable connections at many stations around the clock (🇫🇷:🤯)
https://www.

What if the railways could promote stability rather than disrupting society? | Jaap Burger
What if the railways could promote stability rather than disrupting society? (The German mind cannot comprehend this). The Swiss railways are exploring ways to use batteries on maintenance trains that can operate independently of overhead wires and combine them as an aggregated fleet with smart energy management. This system would ensure that the batteries are charged in time for the next task, reduce battery ageing by avoiding long periods of low or high charge, and could be used to reduce po…

Human cost of working on the railways revealed in database https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/human-cost-of-working-on-the-railways-revealed-in-database/

Human cost of working on the railways revealed in database - The National Archives
A new public database listing records about railway accidents is being launched at The National Archives on Thursday 5 June to coincide with Volunteers Week. The Railway Work, Life & Death project makes accessible information about 4,500 railway staff killed or injured at work between 1911-1923. It has been made possible because volunteers at The […]

Friday Links 25-10
This week I enjoyed the podcasts about Lise Meitner and Korea.
OpenRailwayMap is also nice to play around with, if you are interested in railways all over the world.
https://christof.damian.net/2025/06/friday-links-25-10.html

Friday Links 25-10
This week I enjoyed the podcasts about Lise Meitner and Korea.  OpenRailwayMap is also nice to play around with, if you are interested in ra...

BRICS summit statement condemns attacks on Russian railways, avoids urging Russia to cease war efforts in Ukraine: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/07/brics-summit-statement-condemns-attacks.html

Real-time Optimization of Transport Chains for Single Wagon Load Railway Transport
Carsten Moldenhauer, Philipp Germann, Cedric Heimhofer, Caroline Spieckermann, Andreas Andresen
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.06621

Real-time Optimization of Transport Chains for Single Wagon Load Railway Transport
The freight branch of the Swiss national railways, SBB Cargo, offers customers to ship single or few wagons within its wagon load transportation system (WLV). In this system, wagons travel along a transport chain which is a sequence of consecutive trains. Recently, SBB Cargo redesigned its IT systems and renewed the computation of these transport chains. This paper describes the main design decisions and technical details: data structures, search algorithms, mathematical optimization of through…

The program of the 25th Swiss Transport Research Conference (#STRC25) is now online. There will be 3 papers/presentations by employees of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB):
👉 Quantifying Future Mobility: Scenario-Based Analysis with Agent-Based Modeling
👉 Integrating Machine Learning and MATSim for High-Granularity Passenger Load Predictions at SBB
👉 Differentiation of Modal Preferen…

Ukraine war latest: Russian airports cancel nearly 300 flights amid drone attacks on Russia: https://benborges.xyz/2025/07/07/ukraine-war-latest-russian-airports.html

The UK Conservative Party is in disarray. Since 1979, they have implemented changes with unintended consequences. Water privatisation, sale of social housing, deregulation of building societies, privatisation of railways, and leaving the EU.
Now they are considering withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights, born out of the ashes of the 1930s and 40s in Europe and World War 2.
Which of the 16 Articles do they really believe we should not be protected by?