Christian Wolmar

The palace coup at Transport for London which resulted in the angry departure of Bob Kiley threw a light on the internal workings of that mammoth organisation and raises important questions about its future. In many respects, Kiley had outlived his usefulness. There is no doubt he has served Ken Livingstone, and indeed London, well, Melding together the disparate parts of London’s transport ranging from the Underground and buses to taxis ...

With the publication of its strategy for the South West , CHRISTIAN WOLMAR applauds the broader vision of the railway that is being championed by a newly self-confident Network Rail. Network Rail is growing up. That was apparent from the first of the cumbersomely named Route Utilisation Studies, for which the company has taken over responsibility from the Strategic Rail Authority. The study, covering the South West lines out of Waterloo is ...

One of the things that always made me dubious about Tony Blair’s pro-European credentials was his total failure to consider the issue of the clock change which leaves us out of kilter with most of Europe. As the nights get ever shorter as we approach the Winter solstice, the craziness of our habit of putting the clocks back in the autumn becomes ever more apparent. This is particularly relevant to transport. ...

What is Alistair Darling playing at? The transport secretary gave a widely trailed speech yesterday confirming that airport style scanners would be installed for a trial period at Paddington station to check rail passengers using the premium rate Heathrow Express service. In the speech, Darling admitted that it was impossible to check all the 3 million passengers who use the railways every day, let alone the similar number using the ...

Britain is so far down the line in rail privatisation that many believe it has nothing to learn from Europe. In fact, as CHRISTIAN WOLMAR points out, Johnny Foreigner could teach the UK a trick or two. Nearly ten years after the start of UK rail privatisation, no European railway has undertaken a railway restructuring as radical and far-reaching. Sure, there has been a wave of railway reforms which has resulted ...

London has suddenly become a cycling city. As the recently issued statistics show, in the space of just five years, the number of cyclists on central London streets has doubled and the growth seems set to continue. Indeed, as I ride around London I am struck by the volume and diversity of cyclists ranging from day-glo lycra racers to young smart looking women with high heels in their panniers. The reasons ...