Christian Wolmar

Britain pioneered the ill-starred global reform of the railways in the 1990s. Back from addressing a conference in Australia, CHRISTIAN WOLMAR believes Alistair Darling should learn a lesson from Queensland, which has bucked the trend for splitting track from trains. It is not only Britain, of course, that is obsessed with structural reform of the railways. The topic of the Global Rail seminar in Brisbane organised by the UIC - the ...

Last night's nightmare journey for the passengers on the 17 45 Eastbourne train highlights a fundamental problem with the introduction of new trains on to the Southern commuter network - the lack of sufficient power to run them. In the years after privatisation in 1996/7, hundreds of new coaches were ordered by the new train operating companies to replace the old slam door trains which was both time-expired and less safe ...

It seems an anomaly to have a separate police force for transport. Indeed, the British Transport Police’s name is rather more grand than its function since it covers only the rail and underground systems, not the rest of the transport network like as motorways and airports. Given, too, that the force only has 2,200 officers, it seems miraculous that the BTP has survived as a separate entity in these days ...

New light rail systems have proved expensive and some are failing to meet predictions of passenger numbers, but CHRISTIAN WOLMAR believes Britain is using the wrong model to develop them. When Alistair Darling left the recent opening of the Nottingham tram line, he apparently muttered to his advisors that he hoped this was the last opening of an overpriced, over-budget system that he would have to attend. Indeed, that has very ...

One of the rail industry's biggest moguls, Sir James Sherwood the head of Sea Containers, reckons he has found an easy solution to the problems on the railways. Chop out all the non-profitable lines and then the industry could be left to stand on its own feet, independent of government. Superficially, there appears to be some logic to Sir James's suggestion. Support for the railways cost taxpayers the staggering sum of ...

When the Channel Tunnel opened 10 years ago Friday, it was hailed as an engineering marvel, a new paradigm for the private financing of public- works projects and a way to integrate Britain into a continent it had always held at arm's length. But it has not worked out that way: while the 31-mile- tunnel linking Folkestone and Calais was a technological success, it's been a miserable failure both financially ...