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My Recent Writing
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The level of homelessness is a crisis
The first in my new blog reflecting matters mostly other than transport – though I will occasionally lapse into rail etc. Just jogging to the cafe and back to pick up some bread early this morning, I came across six homeless men, huddled up in their sleeping bags or begging for their breakfast. I spoke to a couple of them and the story is familiar. They became homeless through...
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Young people engaged and enraged by Brexit
I do occasional talks for Speakers for Schools, a charity set up by Robert Peston eight years ago to enable state schools to attract speakers from all wakes of life to come to give talks. It was set up to give some balance as private schools have long been able to invite notable speakers but comprehensives often lack the wherewithal or simply the nous to do so. I have...
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Will HS2 now definitely go ahead?
It seems that the HS2 gravy train is impossible to stop however much its finances go off the rails. Or at least until the election is over. A review into the high speed rail scheme, leaked yesterday, argues that plans should continue. This is despite its cost rising to at least £88bn, almost three times the original estimate of £33bn when HS2 was first proposed a decade ago. And...
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Rail 891: It is not just big projects that are important – and the scandal of Gatwick Express
The publication of the Rail Enhancement Pipeline attracted little media coverage which is generally focussed on the big projects, such as HS2 or Crossrail. This is typical of the Londoncentric view of many journalists as witnessed by the sharp decline in specialist news coverage in the national papers. It is also a pretty thin list. There is precious little money available for new schemes because, despite the overall rise...
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Rail 890: Is Williams review groundhog day? …and a brief look at Albania
Sorry reader, it is difficult to avoid Brexit at the moment. I’ve just spent three days at the European Transport Conference in Dublin where it was hard to avoid the B word, even though everyone is pretty exasperated by it all. I am, as regular readers know, a strong Remainer but a couple of the presentations did expose some of the reasons why hostility has grown towards the supranational...
Latest headlines
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The level of homelessness is a crisis
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Young people engaged and enraged by Brexit
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Will HS2 now definitely go ahead?
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Rail 891: It is not just big projects that are important – and the scandal of Gatwick Express
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Rail 890: Is Williams review groundhog day? …and a brief look at Albania
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Rail 889: Renationalising the railways is a good idea, but not a panacea
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Rail 888: The railway journey in history, a respite from Brexit
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About Christian Wolmar
Christian Wolmar is an award winning writer and broadcaster specialising in transport and is the author of a series of books on railway history. He was Labour's candidate for the 2016 Richmond Park & North Kingston by-election and also ran to be Labour's candidate in the last London mayoral election. Read more >>
I am at the back! twitter.com/Harharanmk/sta…
