Christian Wolmar

The SRA could sweeten the unpalatable medicine of steep fare rises for politically influential commuters in the South East by announcing the introduction of a National Railcard, argues CHRISTIAN WOLMAR. AN almighty brouhaha about fares is looming. The fares consultation process launched last July is due to be completed before the summer, and the Strategic Rail Authority is expected to recommend that there should be sharp rises, particularly for season ticket ...

The row over the exclusion of First Group from the new Greater Anglia franchise will be just the first of many unless Richard Bowker reins in the belligerence being displayed by the SRA, and particularly its chief spin doctor, warns CHRISTIAN WOLMAR. Richard Bowker, the chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority, and his communications chief, Ceri Evans, can consider themselves jolly lucky that there is a war on. Otherwise the recent ...

The lengthy closure of London Underground’s Central Line is a serious breakdown of a major public service which raises a number of issues that extend far beyond the transport field. The impact of the failure is demonstrated by the fact that the Central Line is used by 670,000 people every day, accounting for a staggering 10 per cent of all passenger journeys in the UK. The closure was the result of ...

Remember the expressions ‘joined up government’ and ‘integrated transport’ which were used so much in the early days of New Labour's administration? Neither of these are much in evidence today, as witnessed by their absence in the paper on new communities, Sustainable communties, building for the future, produced by John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister.. Indeed, it is surprising, given that Prescott headed the joint environment and transport department during the ...

The franchising system has effectively collapsed, contends CHRISTIAN WOLMAR, and now SRA Chairman Richard Bowker will have to respond to the Treasury’s worries about the money-sucking structure of the railway. Last July I wrote a column entitled ‘What are franchises for?’ (RAIL 441). I was told at the time by Richard Bowker, the chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority, to wait until the franchise strategy statement was published and all would ...

The ostensible reasons for the PFI programme are well known. It is supposed to reduce the cost of big projects to the public sector by transferring some of the risks to private companies; it keeps these big projects off the government's balance sheet, allowing an increase in capital spending; and it 'incentivises' private companies to be more efficient because the level of payments are related to perform. All these so-called advantages ...