Christian Wolmar

The real story of the fall of Railtrack was not the Transport Secretary’s ‘murder’ of the company but its senior executives’ tame complicity in its own demise, claims CHRISTIAN WOLMAR While researching my recent book, Broken Rails, I spoke to countless railway people across the industry, mostly on the record. Most were extremely co-operative, eager to talk about their experiences during and since the privatisation process and to put forward their ...

In an open letter to Richard Bowker, CHRISTIAN WOLMAR urges the new Chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority to redraw the structure of the railway with the creation of a handful of regional integrated companies that would be new players in the industry. Dear Richard... Congratulations on being installed as the Chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority, a job that currently ranks in difficulty with doing the PR for Rose West or ...

Christian Wolmar and Neal Lawson argue that Transport Minister Stephen Byers should be backed not sacked for his handling of the crisis that finally killed off Railtrack The ferocity of last week's attacks by Tories over the way Stephen Byers killed off Railtrack is a welcome return to two-party politics, not just following the outbreak of the war but for the first time since the 1997 election. Byers may be the ...