Christian Wolmar

Londoners are paying the price for would-be Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s insistence on a ‘crazy’ quasi-privatisation of the Underground system, argues CHRISTIAN WOLMAR. AS Gordon Brown inches closer to the premiership, it’s worth taking a look at one of his least successful initiatives. It was the Chancellor who insisted that the London Underground should be refurbished through a complex 30-year contract rather than a conventional arrangement by allowing Transport for London ...

The Tories appear have upped the stakes on the issue of a greener agenda. Initially they seemed to be trying to be too cute by pretending that reducing carbon emissions was possible without imposing policies that might be electorally difficult to sell. Now, Steve Norris, the ex-transport minister and London mayoral candidate who is chairing the party’s working group on transport, has been braver by recognising that there can be no ...

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has put the idea of Maglev trains back on the political agenda. CHRISTIAN WOLMAR says it’s time for a reality check. BEWARE of politicians shooting from the hip. It was great of young George Osborne, the Conservative Shadow Chancellor, to mention Maglevs while he was in Japan. He said Britain should look at the technology and the scheme could be funded by the private sector. It made ...

Bendy buses seemed like such a good idea a first. The thinking behind them was impeccable. They had greater capacity than the old double deckers and were totally accessible for people in wheelchairs or with pushchairs. And the days of risking your life going up and down stairs while the bus lurched around with a boy racer type emulating Michael Scumacher at the wheel were gone. For the operators, they were ...

Here’s a big idea for Douglas Alexander on his return from his hols: get rid of the yellow lines that blight Britain’s towns. It may not sound like such a political winner, but actually it would please not only the millions of us who care about the environment of our urban areas but also, most important for a Labour politician, it would delight the editor of the Daily Mail. No other ...