Christian Wolmar

The London railway network is a confusing mishmash for many passengers. There are overground trains run by all kinds of different companies some with incomprehensible names like One and C2C, the Underground system which is not always well integrated with the national rail stations and the Docklands Light Railway.
Indeed, integration is the key word. In [...]

The furore over claims of a ‘Beeching 2’ for branches is obscuring the real risk faced by heavily used main lines and commuter routes, warns CHRISTIAN WOLMAR.
iven that the government is intent on abolishing the Strategic Rail Authority, it is not surprising that it is virtually impossible to detect a strategy behind its policy on [...]

Subterranean Railway Review
Newcomers to London life can’t help but be struck by Londoners’ love-hate relationship with the Underground. You meet people from Muswell Hill who boast that it’s great because the tube doesn’t go there, and people from Hackney who moan that Hackney is rubbish… er, because the tube doesn’t go there. You meet strap-hanging [...]

Proposals to scrap Gatwick Express, and for a new Superlink scheme to rival Crossrail, are both symptoms of the government’s failure to tackle capacity problems in the South East, argues CHRISTIAN WOLMAR.
The Strategic Rail Authority stirred up a bit of a hornets’ nest when it suggested Gatwick Express should be scrapped as a dedicated airport [...]

Today’s above inflation fare rises for rail passengers are not the only bit of bad news on the horizon. Rail travellers also face further overcrowding as the numbers of people using the trains continue to rise but there is no room for any more services on many parts of the network. In other words, as [...]

Broadwater Farm is a remarkable place. As you approach it from the south along a street of conventional terrace houses, the first thing you see is a huge mural of a bucolic scene with a huge waterfall at its centre. The blocks on the estate, which has over 1000 flats, are painted in pastel [...]