Christian Wolmar

The London Assembly’s report into the July 7 bombings unfairly pillories a group of public servants who responded admirably to an unprecedented event, argues CHRISTIAN WOLMAR. The tendency of the British press to be universally negative about any public service does, at times, seem rooted in ideology rather than fact. One does not have to be a Martyn Lewis to realise that the recent coverage of the report by the London ...

The Department for Transport has always been rather half hearted about car-free day, now renamed ‘In town, without my car!’ which is to be on September 22nd this year. However, interest has grown and the event was supported worldwide by 1400 cities last year and the British government has belatedly taken a bit of interest, publishing a ‘best practice’ guide to publicise successes last year (obtainable from www.itwmc.gov.uk). The ...

For the best part of a decade, CHRISTIAN WOLMAR has been repeatedly asking ‘what is the purpose of franchising?’ Now, thanks to the indomitable Gwyneth Dunwoody MP, he may be about to receive an answer. The Wolmar Question, ‘what is a franchise for?’, may be about to get an answer. For several years, I have asked why the Department for Transport thinks it is a good idea to franchise out the ...

Watching the A380 glide down onto Heathrow’s runway for the first time, the fellow hack standing next to me could not resist blurting out: ‘Be quite a bang if one of these big mothers’ goes down’. Seating anything from 555 to possibly 800 people, it will certainly dwarf any previous disaster apart from the rather freakish collision in Tenerife between two 747s which killed 583 people. If, as Airbus hopes, the ...