Thomas Ableman

My happy place is the compartment of a European train, with a cup of coffee in one hand and a history book in the other. Hence a Substack exploring European history based on my travels. Each month the story of a different period through the prism of a ride. open.substack.com/pub/historyo...

As the American-European relationship seems strained, let’s look back at the bond formed in the aftermath of World War Two. Not just the Marshall Plan, but the food collected across America and sent to Europe in the Friendship Train, and the “thank you” gifts that returned in the Gratitude Train.

Well worth a listen: @freewheeling.info talks about his new report on the pros and cons of Digital Pay-As-You-Go vs Contactless for public transport fares, and why he thinks most places should skip contactless entirely and go straight to the newer system. Oh, and it's 95% cheaper too.

It has taken an insane length of time (almost all of my 45 years), but today is the last ever weekday I can stand on this bleak, grey pretence of Britain’s national High Street 

The hollowing out a priceless national asset, under a techbro vandal. As with higher education, this type of move might be tolerable if there was *any government policy at all* on what the ultimate plan is. But there isn't.

The greatest challenge of our time isn’t to figure out how to get to Mars or become interstellar, but to figure out how to live sustainably on Earth.

We had a lovely holiday in Matlock Bath, arriving by train and travelling by bus. It is perfectly viable, despite what this article says. And it’s an article about traffic in the Peak District that makes no reference to Mini Switzerland www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The Government is basically right - when I explored this issue on the podcast earlier this year, the answer to stopping people playing things on their phones on trains was basically 'tell them not to'. www.freewheeling.info/the-freewhee...

This is actually mad - please, please, please can we stop making the outputs of a random number generator (permitted range: -1 to 1) front page news. It is entirely meaningless and pointless! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

You can hold all these views: That the Russians almost certainly interfered. That we need to know the extent of that interference to protect against it happening in future. And that no matter how effective it was, millions still felt angry enough with the status quo to risk change.

the caption that tells you everything you need to know

Putin speaks but Trump’s mouth is moving.

In other words, a 10 percent contraction in one of Britain’s most successful exports. If it were steel or fish or other infinitely less profitable sectors, people would be having a meltdown.

Hardly an original take but it is Quite Annoying to imagine how much the UK (and me, and you!) would all have more cash today if Donald Trump hadn't decided to start bombing Iran for *reasons*. Where's the White House impact assessment on my nursery fees. www.ft.com/content/2cb1...

Seriously?!? After the Labour conference in which Burnham put forward more new ideas than all PMs in the last decade combined, the BBC focuses on a front-page gotcha splash by Chris Mason on football. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

It’s a mark of the corruption of our whole way of thinking about the world that trying to meet a planetary emergency is routinely described as “ideological”, while continuing to accelerate it is presented as “pragmatic” and “economic”.

My other main thought: that prospectus means that it's now overall possible to be progressive and feel ok about supporting Labour again. That hasn't been the case for some time. Those in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s have a chance to put things right when we've drifted badly off course.

The BBC news summary this morning went seamlessly from "critics warn PM scrapping triple lock would be electoral suicide" to "critics ask if PM has nerve to make tough decisions" and I don't think it's a particularly pro Burnham stance to suggest he might not be the entire problem here.

I struggled to finish reading this important and horrifying reporting www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...

📌 ICYMI — Rupert Murdoch Flew Kemi Badenoch and Her Deputy to Mediterranean for Summer Trips Worth £12,000 — @josiahmortimer.bsky.social The Conservative leader and Alex Burghart MP held "off-site meetings" with the billionaire media mogul in August

Liar. Small boat crossings peaked under Johnson in 2022 reaching 46,000 in 2022. In current year they are 18,565 and falling. Also prior to Boris Johnson's Brexit there were none.

I now publish a History of Europe in 75 Train Journeys as a podcast as well as a blog. Here’s the latest, somewhat grim, episode. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

Definitely worth subscribing to this free c. monthly blog …

It this was a BBC news report, there’d be a warning that people may find the contents distressing. And they probably would, for this month's chapter is about the holocaust. But it's also crucial we never forget what we - as humans - are capable of - and the railway's ghastly complicity.

Have the BBC forgotten how to do proper reporting? The arrest isn't "over video", it's over the dinghy slashing.

This is beyond nuts. Being English is not an ethnicity. It’s being… English. Like both Suella and I am. Or was Winston Churchill not English?

It is disgraceful and wilfully misleading that the BBC do not report that Danny Tommo was filmed slashing the boat.

Every time I return to Paris, I notice they've done more to reclaim streets from drivers and cars, including removing on-street parking, protecting cyclists from drivers, and prioritizing pedestrians and cyclists in shared spaces. Other cities can learn a lot from Paris.

I’m so glad to report that Italy is not, after all, perfect. www.freewheeling.info/blog/incompl...

Summer of terrifying drought and wildfire, bus drivers sweltering in shocking temperatures, everyone losing sleep unable to get cool at night and *this* is the policy they come up with? Just makes things worse and does nothing to address inequality or enable people to walk, cycle or catch a bus. 🤷‍♀️

Lib Dem pledge to cut fuel duty by 10p is depressingly bad policy: poorly targeted, expensive (£5bn), and it weakens incentives to switch to EVs and reduce usage.

Tomorrow, I’m assuming we’ll have an interview with a prominent figure who has not lost faith in the UK. Because surely this won’t be the ONLY topic on which the BBC doesn’t do “balance”

Why does the BBC have as one of its lead news stories this morning another Britain-hating interview with Jim 'the UK has been colonised by immigrants' Ratcliffe? What public interest is this serving?

The RNLI has said the abuse of volunteers in Portsmouth has forced it to close the lifeboat station there and stop operating since September 10. Nearby stations have been providing cover to the area instead. One of the UK's largest coastal cities without a lifeboat because of the far-right.

In the movie version of this, after Piddington runs out of food water and money as a result of leaving the UK, the residents apply for asylum and end up housed in a military base, with HILARIOUS consequences. www.bbc.com/news/article...

The East Coast Mainline really is the most unfair route. Sights by side of train, if travelling south: Calton Hill LEFT Berwick LEFT Berwickshire / Northumberland coast LEFT Newcastle bridges LEFT Durham Cathedral and Castle LEFT York Minster LEFT Peterborough Cathedral LEFT Emirates Stadium LEFT

Trainline seems to think Scottish Independence has already happened. Got this notification a few minutes after crossing the border into England

Trump now attacking Zelensky for defending his country from Russian attack by taking out Russian oil supplies. Once again, there is no criticism of Putin. As always, the question is: If Trump were a Russian agent, how would he behave differently? www.themoscowtimes.com/2026/09/13/t...

It's nonsense to suggest that people who support Brexit and Reform are motivated by racism. And if you don't believe me, check out this perfectly reasonable tweet by prominent Reform member and former mayoral candidate, Arron Banks.

Well, yes, it makes sense that Itamar Ben-Gvir would think the question of sovereignty has nothing to do with the people who actually live there

Genuinely, could someone who understands the media explain to me why the BBC has spent the weekend looking the other way both from Reform's leaders being videoed engaging in a criminal offence, and to far-right blackshirts hitting the streets? Why? What conversations are happening in BH?

Truly wild to have lived through moral panics about teenagers wearing hoodies and Muslim women wearing the head dress to now experience 'but is a large group of organised far right activists in balaclavas really that scary'