29. The Permanent Way

This week, we're not mucking about: we're going full-transport nerd. First up Jonn tells Stephanie about his abortive adventures inter-railing in the long hot summer of 1999 - an almost entirely appalling experience about which he briefly considered writing a very short memoir under the title "Belgian Boy Scouts and Psychosomatic Diarrhoea". The inspiration for this was the news that a German MEP has proposed free interrailing passes for every EU citizen on their 18th birthday. So we share our experiences of scary nuns and Soviet buses on Europe's transport network, and discuss whether better transport links really could create a European identity. Next up, the Guardian technology writer and New Statesman escapee Alex Hern pops by to talk us through the hyperloop: why it is a real thing, why it will nonetheless almost never happen, and why it typifies everything wrong with the entire Silicon Valley culture. To wrap up, the regulars talk about trolleybuses, suspended monorails, outdoor escalators and...

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