A man stands in front of a screen. He is lecturing. He is behind a podium
It was fantastic to welcome @astonuniversity.bsky.social alumnus, @alexhornbyrail.bsky.social, Commercial and Customer Director at Northern, back to talk to our Transport Management students today. He described his career and outlined what is happening at Northern to enhance passenger experience.
A man lectures in a room. He is in front of a screen and behind a lecturn. There is a railway station on the screen.
It was truly wonderful to welcome @mrtimdunn.bsky.social to @astonuniversity.bsky.social.
He talked to our Transport Management students about the use of heritage and history in current transport marketing and image.
The JTH presents the Special Issue Civil Aviation and the Global South, Volume 45 Issue 3, by Dr. Marie Huber and Dr. Waqar Zaidi!
This article is: βHigher up, furtherβ approaching air transport in postcolonial Africa through the biographies of planes, by Marie Huber.
I would love to boost the account of @entandsoc.bsky.social, probably* the best journal of business history in the world. So if you (or your followers) are interested in business history, very broadly defined, please consider following and reposting bsky.app/profile/enta...
I thought about using assimilated Picard, on the principal that even if they have something good to say (the Patrick Stewart/Picard part), use of AI would corrupt it when integrated.
...but then I realised that may be too niche.
Wait? You mean to say that an organisation run by a private company, prioritises the profitable stuff over the less/unprofitable Universal Service Obligation?
And next week we report that grass is green.
Why is anyone surprised when this sort of thing happens?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk Β©Reach PLC. Image created courtesy of THE BRITISH LIBRARY BOARD.
Two newspaper images side by side. A lecture theatre and stage. On the left of the image are long windows through which light shines. The other image is a corner of a library. There are bookshelves. In front of them is a table and a chair.
Today I attended the Rail in the Midlands run by
@modernrailways.keypublishing.com. A very interesting event and I'm always happy to return to Derby Conference Centre
The LMS opened it in July 1937 as its School of Transport. Shown is its lecture theatre and library just before the opening ceremony
A sign from teams "No internet. Reconnect to keep the conversation going".
Thanks Teams. I didn't know that once I reconnected to the internet, I could "Keep the conversation going".
What a pointless message. Is there an IT designer somewhere that genuinely thought "perhaps they don't know that to keep communicating they need the internet?"
Imagine a world in which it was nobody's damn business where you went, and you certainly didn't need to pay a whacking fee just to be able to enter the country you were a citizen of.
A station, St Pancras in London. A great arched structure, in which a train is lined up ready to depart. Light comes through.
Travelling from this special place today. Off to Derby!
I did a bit of a dig on the BNA and found that 119,914 GWR passenger trains ran in the 4 weeks from 2 Oct 1926 (South Glou. Gazette - 11 Dec 1926). That's an average of 4,282 per day
The no. running on 7 May was 471 (Halifax Evening Courier - 08 May 1926). This is likely only passenger trains.
I have had a look at the two earliest versions I have - 1934 and 1936 - and whilst they provide passenger train mileage, they don't mention the number of trains. Sorry, I will keep thinking.
There is a little booklet the railways produced from the late-1920s called "Facts about British Railways". It might have the details, and I have some copies. I am on a train right now, but will take a look tomorrow (if I can find my collection in a box!)
A line map of a station. At the bottom are railway lines going into the station. At the top, the lines go up to a goods depot.
Something I found in the archive a few years back; a Midland railway map of St Pancras station and Somers Town Goods Depot from 1892 (I cleaned it up a bit). The goods depot was where the British Library now stands.
Can you spot the hydraulic lift that lowered the beer-laden wagons into the vaults?
Book launch 26 Feb 2026 working class movement library
Pleased to be doing the northern leg of my book launch at @wcmlibrary.bsky.social with Isaac Rose and the Greater Manchester Tenants' Union on 26 Feb. Northerners, book now!
We see a cartoon waiter in blue. He is holding a tray with two drinks; one is a yellow cocktail, another is a bigger drink that is red. He is looking at the drinks. In his other hand he holds a box of cigars which says on it "Flor de LNER - Extra Fina". Across him towards the bottom is the word "Discretion". Then underneath it says "In mixing cocktails and serving crusted port - regard for our passengers' eupeptic welfare - these are the qualities that distinguish the LNER waiter."
This poster, that I recently saw up, was painted in 1933 by Austin Cooper for the London & North Eastern Railway.
If you are wondering what "eupeptic" means, it is "Relating to or having good digestion" - How very considerate of the LNER.
A green background; there is a computer. An outline of a man sitting at a computer with graphs on it. The computer has a blue outline.
Something from the university's archive: the cover of @astonuniversity.bsky.social's 1986 undergraduate prospectus. Are you ready for the computer age?
"Toxic culture' caused by REF pressure to target top journals Staff at management school say they feel forced to publish in 'narrow' subset of elite journals to boost REF standing, restricting types of research they can pursue Published on February 12, 2026 Last updated February 12, 2026 Jack Grove
Iβm shocked π
On 16 April, we co-host 'History and Archives in Practice, 2026' with @ihr.bsky.social, The National Archives, and University of Sheffield Library.
For #HAP26 our theme is: βShaping Societies, Improving Lives: the Impact of Archives and Historical Researchβ bit.ly/4tvKUnX. Booking now #Skystorians
βContinued global heating could trigger climate tipping points, leading to a cascade of further tipping points and feedback loops. This would lock the world into a new and hellish βhothouse Earthβ climate far worse than the 2-3C temperature rise the world is on track to reach. #ClimateCrisis
One on left is a black dog and above it the words βRealityβ. Below it is βI chased a squirrelβ One the right is a black dog and above it says βLinkedInβ. Below it says, Proud to announce that I effectively executed a rapid-response squirrel displacement strategy to mitigate potential yard intrusions. Humbled by the unwavering support of my family and local stakeholders. This experience reinforced the importance of vigilance, ownership, and continuous improvement. Looking forward to scaling this impact in future engagements.
π
In the UK academic recession, you will be at one of these stages since many unis buy the same cuts model from the same consultancies. It is always the same process:
*Talk of belt-tightening
*Incidental savings (e.g. printing, refreshments)
*Travel budgets cut
*Promotion freeze (1/4)
Thanks Iain, useful to know, and absolutely Victoria. A recent Transport for the North study showed that just under 3 million people in it's region are at risk of Transport Related Social Exclusion.
A question for your morn:
We have figures for the growth in rail patronage since the 1990s. The headline figures show increasing numbers of tickets sold.
But, has anyone conducted research on the people forced off the rail by pricing policies that the overall statistics hide?
An image from a newspaper. The header says "Shall we ever see it finished". The image is of a very large building under construction. There is scaffolding around it. Next to it is a completed building.
Did you know that we hold the records for Aston's predecessor organisations and student's organisations, including their publications?
In Dec 1956 the Journal of the Guild of Students of the College of Technology, asked whether our main building -at that point half complete- would ever be finished.
For the record I #RefuseToUseAI.
BBC News - Government offers UK adults free AI training for work - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
A new Article has been published in JTH!
"Hidden vital players in supply chain β Freight forwarders from nineteenth century to date in Serbia", by ΔurΔica StojanoviΔ and Marko VeliΔkoviΔ.
Check it out here: journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Don't miss it!
Some good discussion of High Streets up on the Granuiad site - but what is missing from the discussion remains how much worse the problem of visible decline is in the UK compared to other European countries (or indeed Asia or Australia).
www.theguardian.com/society/ng-i...
This is how the BBC is reporting Matt Goodwin's selection as Reform's candidate in Gorton and Denton.
He's not an academic. He holds no academic position and hasn't done for quite some time.
