Christian Wolmar

One of the reasons that the railways, even in their heyday, struggled to make ends meet was that they were never allowed to profit from the enormous value they create in the wider economy. Railways have always been a driver of economic growth, as demonstrated by the fact that they engender enormous increase in land value but that profit has gone elsewhere, to lucky or canny landowners who happen to ...

It sounded jolly good when Network Rail announced in its 2007 Business Plan, published in early April, that there would be a ‘£2.4bn expansion programme’ over the next two years. The press release sang: ‘hundreds of platforms will be lengthened, new platforms added, new tracks laid and line speeds raised’ as well as signalling schemes that will add capacity. Iain Coucher, soon to be anointed as chief executive, rattled through a ...

Jogging on Hampstead Heath on Maundy Thursday was a delight. There were hardly any people despite the strong sun which, at 7 30 am, was already beginning to warm the cold air and dry the dew off the grass. The reason, of course, is that everyone had fled the capital city or was preparing to. The roads on the way to the Heath had been empty, too, with no sign of ...

The opening, in June, of the TGV Est, France’s fourth high-speed line, will bring a sad casualty in its wake: the first stretch of the original Orient Express, the sleeper train that has connected Paris with Vienna, and places further east, for 124 years. The last train will leave Paris for the Austrian capital on 7 June. With bookings available two months in advance, this weekend offers the opportunity to ...

Those clever French certainly pulled a fast one this week. While Network Rail was boasting about spending billions on lengthening station platforms, a French train was showing us the future with a record-breaking run of more than 350mph. OK, so the test train was only five carriages long, and when the TGV Est opens to passengers on June 10, the trains will mosey along at 200mph. Nevertheless, the French now have ...

Will Gordon Brown be good for transport? The signs are mixed. It was Brown who insisted on the Public Private Partnership for the London Underground that has proved, as predicted, expensive and cumbersome. Moreover, Brown avoided any involvement in the detail of the extremely complex scheme and therefore refused to take responsibilty when it became apparent that the idea was virtually unworkable and costing half a billion pounds in consultants’ ...