Ellie Harrison

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privatisation

  • 2023 Exhibition

    Bus Regulation: The Musical (Merseyside)

    15 Jul 2023
    The Black-E, Liverpool

  • 2022 Performance / Events
    Bus Regulation: The Musical staged at the Bluecoat on 13 November 2022

    Bus Regulation: The Musical (Merseyside)

    The final part of Harrison’s Bus Regulation: The Musical Trilogy – inspired by the 1980s hit musical ‘Starlight Express’ – re-enacts the history of public transport provision in the Merseyside region from the post-war period to the present day… on roller skates!

  • 2022 Performance / Events
    Bus Regulation: The Musical staged at CCA Glasgow on 24 April 2022

    Bus Regulation: The Musical (Strathclyde)

    The second iteration of Harrison’s Bus Regulation: The Musical – inspired by the 1980s hit musical ‘Starlight Express’ – re-enacts the history of public transport provision in the Strathclyde region from the post-war period to the present day… on roller skates!

  • 2019 Writing

    The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint

    On 4 November 2019, Luath Press published Harrison’s first book. Inspired by her 2016 ‘durational performance’ The Glasgow Effect – for which she refused to travel beyond Glasgow’s city limits, or use any vehicles except her bike, for the whole calendar year – the book provides the complete context for her thinking and action. (Word count: 119,000)

  • 2019 Performance / Events
    Bus Regulation: The Musical staged at Manchester Art Gallery on 28 September 2019

    Bus Regulation: The Musical (Greater Manchester)

    Inspired by the 1980s hit musical ‘Starlight Express’, this performance / event re-enacts the history of public transport provision in Greater Manchester from the post-war period to the present day… on roller skates!

  • 2016 Political Campaigns, Writing

    A Better Railway for Britain

    Writing as founder and coordinator of Bring Back British Rail, Harrison reflects on the last seven years’ campaigning for the public ownership of our railways in this preface for the campaign’s first report, launched in the Houses of Parliament in London on 13 October 2016. (Word count: 663)

  • 2014 Political Campaigns, Writing

    Power For The People!

    In this comment piece for The Ecologist, Harrison details how her concerns about climate change led her to start campaigning for the public ownership of our essential services and infrastructure with Bring Back British Rail and Power For The People. (Word count: 766)

  • 2013 Political Campaigns

    Power For The People

    Harrison launched Bring Back British Rail’s ‘sister campaign’ Power for the People in October 2013 in order to popularise the idea of returning the UK’s energy production and supply to public ownership. Together the campaigns aim to ‘join the dots’ between our most carbon-intensive industries and services to make evident the need to remove the profit-motive from all of them in order to meet the challenges of climate change.
    Campaign website

  • 2012 Political Campaigns, Writing

    Bring Back British Rail

    As founder of the Bring Back British Rail campaign, Harrison was invited to write about the public ownership of our railways for the Green Party of England & Wales’s The New Home Front II (p.41-42) in 2012, which looks to the post-war period for lessons on how to tackle climate change now. (Word count: 709)

  • 2011 Installations
    A Brief History of Privatisation installed at Watermans in 2011

    A Brief History of Privatisation

    An installation in which the oscillations in UK public service policy over the last century are re-enacted by an inner circle of electric massage chairs under the seedy glow of red, and then blue, neon.

  • 2009 Political Campaigns

    Bring Back British Rail

    In 2009, Harrison – the self-professed ‘Che Guevara of trainspotters’ – founded the national Bring Back British Rail campaign to popularise the idea of re-nationalising our public transport system. Now with more than 150,000 supporters across Facebook, Twitter, Riseup and its online petitions, Harrison continues to coordinate the campaign with the help of a small network of volunteers around the UK.
    Campaign website

News

Ellie Harrison is an artist & activist based in Glasgow (UK). In 2023 she won the Stephen Fry Public Engagement Award for her ‘Bus Regulation: The Musical’ Trilogy in Greater Manchester, Strathclyde & Merseyside (2019 – 2023).
In 2021 the Second Edition of Harrison’s book The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint was launched at the UN Habitat’s Innovate4Cities conference to mark the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, and chosen by the Ecologist for the Resurgence Book Club. Her Early Warning Signs were also exhibited at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library during COP26 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the project.
Harrison’s Vending Machine continues to feature in the 😹 LMAO exhibition exploring humour in data visualisation at the Open Data Institute in London.

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Ellie Harrison

Ellie Harrison

Artist, activist & author of 'The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint' 📚

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"We need The Scottish Government to support our transport authority, SPT, to bring the bus network back into public control, so they can deliver a fully-integrated, accessible and affordable public transport network across the region like Greater Manchester’s new ‘Bee Network’, or the recently released plans for South Yorkshire’s ‘People’s Network’" — Ellie Harrison

I was delighted to contribute to Gerry Hassan's article for Bella Caledonia about 𝘈 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘋𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘝𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘎𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘨𝘰𝘸 👏 Read online here 👇
bellacaledonia.org.uk/2026/03/31/time-for-a-new-deal-and-vision-for-glasgow @followers
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2 weeks ago
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Calling all A-N members! Don't miss this online artist's talk and workshop on '𝗔𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲' which I'm co-hosting this Thursday 2 April, 11am-1pm 🌍 Find out more 👇 @followers ... See MoreSee Less

3 weeks ago
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Are you in Glasgow t

Are you in Glasgow this evening? Come along to this free screening of the brilliant POWER Film at The Glasgow School of Art 👇 I'll be introducing the event, talking about my work with Glasgow Community Energy and chairing a Q&A with artist and filmmaker Hilary Powell 😊 @followersSave the date! 🌞 We're delighted to be collaborating with Friends of the Earth Scotland to bring you Turning homes into renewable Power Stations: film screening & Discussion 👇
🗓️ Thurs 12 March 2026, 5:30pm
📍 Reid Building, The Glasgow School of Art
🎟️ Book free tickets: powerstationGSA.eventbrite.com @followers
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1 month ago
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It’s this blatant injustice that motivates all my campaigning 😡 Why should people in the poorest parts of Glasgow have to pay 𝘯𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘸𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 for an essential public service as bankers in the City of London? Shame on The Scottish Government for presiding over this system for more than 25 years! @followers ... See MoreSee Less

3 months ago
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Ten years ago today, I was just beginning my year-long durational performance #TheGlasgowEffect which was to become one of the most controversial publicly-funded artworks that Scotland had ever seen.

Part psychological experiment, part protest, part strike, for the whole of 2016, I vowed not to travel beyond Glasgow’s city limits, or use any vehicles except my bike.

I described my experience of starting #TheGlasgowEffect, including being at the centre of the social media stooshie it provoked, in ‘When the Chips Hit the Fan’ – Chapter 5 of my book ‘The Glasgow Effect: A Tale of Class, Capitalism & Carbon Footprint’ published by Luath Press 📚

We have just printed a newly updated version of the Second Edition, so do have a read if you’d like to be transported back to that moment in January 2016... Find out more at: ellieharrison.com/book @followers
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3 months ago
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It's been brilliant working with Metro Map Design to produce Get Glasgow Moving's new film setting out our vision for the new #ClydeMetro integrated public transport system 🤩 Check it out here 👇 @followers ... See MoreSee Less

4 months ago
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🚶🚲🚍🚇🚉 I was honoured to be invited to discuss my activism with Bring Back British Rail, Get Glasgow Moving & Better Buses for Strathclyde at ETF's 𝘉𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘈𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘉𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 conference at KVS Brussels 🙌 @followers ... See MoreSee Less

4 months ago
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Why are we still waiting for better buses? 🚌 Check out this brilliant new animation by Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, University of Dundee graduate Sooz Reilly which we launched this week as part of the Better Buses for Strathclyde campaign. Please take two minutes to 𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗠𝗦𝗣𝘀 to demand action 👇 @followers
📨 betterbuses.uk/strathclyde/#email
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6 months ago
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Commodities

  • Hen Weekend Bag Hen Weekend Bag £10.00
  • Hen Weekend Badge Hen Weekend Badge £2.00
  • Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund Sticker Radical Renewable Art + Activism Fund Sticker £3.00
  • Bring Back British Rail Sticker Bring Back British Rail Sticker £3.00
  • Day-to-Day Data Book Day-to-Day Data Book £20.00
  • Part-time Book Part-time Book £10.00
  • Confessions of a Recovering Data Collector Book Confessions of a Recovering Data Collector £10.00
  • Ellie & Oliver Show T-Shirt Ellie & Oliver Show T-Shirt £20.00
  • National Museum of Roller Derby Sticker National Museum of Roller Derby Sticker £3.00

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