It’s been a glorious August for the railways as terrorism fears have made airline travel a nightmare. But why, asks CHRISTIAN WOLMAR, hasn’t the industry shouted its successes from the rooftops?
IT may have been a lousy August for aviation but it was a great one for the railways. Thousands of people discovered that Britain has [...]
Archive of August, 2006
Aug
30
Gridlocked nation
One thing is sure as we approach the big Bank Holiday weekend. Today, tomorrow and especially during the weekend, thousands of people will be stuck in traffic jams caused by accidents. “There must have been a crash” we always say as the cars ahead come to a complete standstill. Why, we ask ourselves, does this [...]
It is, as Rail magazine put it wittily, the end of a GNera. The widely expected demise of the GNER franchise marks the end of a brief attempt by the Department for Transport to use the franchise process to maximise revenue from the rail companies at the expense of a reduced standard of service for [...]
In his annual summer-term report on the pupils of Railway School, headmaster CHRISTIAN WOLMAR praises improved performance but finds there are still too many trips to the taxpayers’ tuck shop.
How time flies when you’re having fun. It’s time once again for the usual headmaster’s annual report on how the boys and girls (of whom, pleasingly, [...]
Speed kills. It is as simple as that. For every 1 mph increase in speed, the number of accidents rise by 5 per cent. Therefore it is perfectly sensible for the Department for Transport to review speed limits and reduce the risks on our roads.
The death toll on our roads has been going down, but [...]
There’s a delicious irony about a Labour government defending a privatised rail system which the Tories admit they got wrong. CHRISTIAN WOLMAR explains how David Cameron’s resurgent Conservatives have outflanked embattled ministers.
In the run-up to the 1997 general election, this column regularly used to cover Labour’s policies on rail even though the party was in [...]