As the new Labour government introduces its landmark legislation to nationalize the railways, host Emilio Casalicchio asks: How do we get the trains to run on time?
He travels to Japan, where privatized high speed trains whiz passengers between cities at 300 mph and delays are measured in seconds not minutes.
And he examines the nationalized rail system in ... Show More
Feb 6
A handy guide to Labour regicide
After the most difficult week of Keir Starmer's premiership, with mounting speculation over how long he can last as Prime Minister, this week on Westminster Insider, host Patrick Baker explores Labour's long and not-too-illustrious history of failed coups and botched insurrection ... Show More
39m 8s
Dec 12
Spin, half-truth or deceit? How political lies really work
Surfball was supposed to be the sport of the next generation – but it instead it was a fiction created by Peter Mandelson. Lying in politics is nothing new, but after the budget, Rachel Reeves' extraordinary pitch-rolling was viewed by some as an outright lie and others as justif ... Show More
44m 42s
Sep 2024
The high-speed train race
The first public run of the Japanese ‘bullet train’, the Shinkansen, on the 1st of October 1964, captured public imagination worldwide. And it wasn’t just the train’s sleek look or its high speed that made the headlines. Behind the train’s futuristic exterior lay a whole host of ... Show More
49m 31s
Feb 2025
Why do trains run on tracks?
<p>How do trains work? We went to Union Station in Washington, DC to answer a whole wagonload of questions with Amtrak's Patrick Kidd.</p><p>A few years ago, we left our studio in Vermont to hop on the Amtrak Acela train that runs multiple trips per day between Washington, DC, Ne ... Show More
20m 59s
Aug 2025
America's lawyers vs. China's engineers
America has a hard time building stuff. Roads. Trains. Bridges. Housing. Everything takes seemingly forever. Meanwhile, China seems to have no trouble at all: high-speed rails, solar panels, electric cars, bridges, ports, all churned out at breakneck speed. Why is that? Sean's gu ... Show More
51m 37s
Sep 2023
4. This Train Has Been Delayed
Singapore, 2016. A high-tech driverless train system starts glitching in wild and unpredictable ways. The train company, the government, even the military are at a loss: no-one can figure out what is causing the problem. Until Jason Bay and his team of data scientists assemble an ... Show More
13m 29s