Michael Dnes (@MichaelDnes1) / X

Michael Dnes

2,911 posts

Michael Dnes

@MichaelDnes1

Killed one motorway; failed to build another; wrote about ones that never happened. Ex-civil servant. Views personal

Outer-London-in-denial

Joined November 2012

Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Mar 15, 2024
This weekend, Britain may be about to have its worst traffic jam ever. Up to five hours of delay for 100,000 drivers or more. Would you believe me if I told you the reason is because Britain's most hated motorway is too good? Or that someone had a semi-secret plan to fix that🧵
1.4M
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Sep 30, 2024
It seems HS2 is going to Euston. Big cheers from the rail crowd. But there’s a much bigger question that hasn’t been answered yet. And it might be the most important question in 100 years of UK railway history.🧵
HS2’s Euston leg poised to be given green light despite cost concerns
From telegraph.co.uk
482K
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Apr 1, 2024
This tweet has got a lot of people talking about why Britain seems so short of electric railways. 15 years ago, it was about to be very different. And then things went very wrong. 🧵
1.2M
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Dec 7, 2024
Does HS2 have a future? And why might that question hinge on an unseen government document and a sugar mill in Nottinghamshire?🧵
432K
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Jul 11, 2025
The last successful planning application for a reservoir was submitted in 1976 As late as the 1960s Britain typically opened 3 reservoirs a year.
Yorkshire Water hosepipe ban 'to last until winter' says boss
From bbc.co.uk
35K
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Jul 3, 2025
This is Brezhnev era stuff. When a system is collapsing, the people at the top would far rather it fails on their terms than it is fixed on anybody else's.
TfL Watch
@TfLWatch
Jul 3, 2025
🚨 Is Sadiq Khan’s TfL Chief seriously suggesting that people like @tomhfh and @lfg_uk are spraying graffiti just so they can clean it off themselves? Why on earth would they have to do that?
00:00
22K
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Nov 28, 2024
We have a new report out today. Because we’ve found one weird fact that unites all four constituencies that swung Reform for the first time at the election.🧵
264K
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Jun 10, 2025
It seems Britain can’t build. Not houses or hospitals or roads or trains or pylons or reactors or reservoirs or runways or data centres or film studios or factories. But how on earth did we get here?
44K
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Mar 15, 2024
Replying to @MichaelDnes1
So instead, we did something roads planners allegedly don't do – we got the government to commit to _not_ widen the motorway. And began the long wait to see if anyone cared enough to make it worth developing the alternatives. Which, to this day, they have not.
56K
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Feb 1, 2025
I’m tired of hearing about bats. Do you want to hear a story about jumping spiders and the town that disappeared? I think I might be breaking this story – do come be the first to read it.
200K
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Dec 22, 2023
The amazing things here are 1- it is 11km 2- built in one of Europe’s most remote spaces 3- costing less than _the_planning_documentation_ for many UK projects
Kristina Háfoss
@KristinaHafoss
Dec 21, 2023
Today, the Faroe Islands 4. sub-sea tunnel opened. This new sub-sea #tunnel connects the islands of Sandoy and Streymoy and is 11 km. An unforgettable experience to sail the last trip between the islands today and be able to drive home. A step forward for the #FaroeIslands.
30K
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Jun 15, 2025
Has government just quietly told us that it’s building HS2? I’d better explain.
64K
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Aug 28, 2023
After the revival of this old thread on UK infrastructure, I realise that I never followed through on my promise: to explain what might speed it up. Grab a spade, and come with me. 🧵 (thanks to @Sam_Dumitriu and @DavidHenigUK for reminding me)
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Feb 28, 2023
Enjoying the recent @WorksInProgress article by @Sam_Dumitriu on speeding up infrastructure. It made me look back to my time as designer of the UK’s roads programme, and our struggles to speed things up. 🧵 (1/19)
335K
Michael Dnes
@MichaelDnes1
Apr 1, 2024
Replying to @MichaelDnes1
Which gets harder when you learn that, during the 1970s, to stop the signalling cables being nicked, they buried them and didn’t bother to write down where.
41K