Christian Wolmar

Alistair Darling’s disdain for light rail is belied by the success of schemes such as Nottingham’s new tramway, argues CHRISTIAN WOLMAR. I happened to be in Nottingham the other day, and, just for fun, took the wonderfully quiet and sleek tram, even though my destination was just one stop - price 80p - away. Nottingham is the most unequivocal success story of the light rail schemes built in the UK over ...

Mike Mitchell’s appointment as rail director general has raised eyebrows among those who know him as a cost-cutter rather than a motivational leader, observes CHRISTIAN WOLMAR. I’m afraid that readers of this column are going to have to get used to hearing a lot more about the goings on at the Department for Transport. They are our new rulers and therefore we must examine what they are up to as closely ...

We love to knock our railways. It is almost a national sport to moan about delays, cancellations, fares and the wrong kind of everything, from snow to sunshine. And many of those complaints are justified. A decade-old privatisation universally recognised as botched and fundamentally flawed has unsettled the whole industry and led to an increase in delays, a sharp rise in ‘walk on’ fares and a massive rise in subsidy from ...

The idea of closing sections of the Northern line for months to carry out major repairs suggested by the Tube’s managing director, Tim O’Toole smacks of desperation. On the face of it, there are some good reasons why closures could be necessary. The Northern Line is the oldest Tube line in the world and parts of it date back to 1890 when the section between the City and Stockwell opened. Over ...

RAIL’s exclusive revelations about the £100m new trains that can’t be used have underlined the idiocy of the railway’s unco-ordinated structure, laments CHRISTIAN WOLMAR. The story of the seven homeless Midland Mainline nine-car Meridian DEMUs ( RAIL 501/507) is a fascinating tale that highlights how the lack of co-ordination in the industry can lead to a crazy waste of resources. To recap, from the excellent exclusives produced by RAIL’s Hassard Stacpoole, three ...

Transport has slipped down the political agenda. For the past few months, as other issues such as Iraq, the tsunami and the interminable Brown-Blair conflict have dominated the political agenda, virtually nothing has been heard about the problems of the roads and railways. Even the Railways Bill, currently in Parliament, has attracted relatively little interest. On the face of it, this seems perplexing because there are certainly problems in abundance and ...