Christian Wolmar

The replacement of the highly competent Douglas Alexander with Ruth Kelly who seems to have feet of clay and has bungled most of her big jobs so far, is deeply disappointing. It suggests that Brown does not rate the issue as very important, given that Alexander, who had done a solid job and dared to [...]

The rail industry is finally waking up to the environmental impact of train travel. For so long the industry had simply assumed that trains were better than cars that little work was done to improve the environmental viability of the railways.
Indeed, quite the opposite. Extra facilities such as air conditioning together with the requirements of [...]

Went on an early morning demonstration organisation by the 4×4 alliance, an excellent group of people campaigning against the growing trend of the use of these ridiculous vehicles in towns. The demonstration focussed on people taking their kids to school in Highgate, an area with seven private schools, which puts at risk all those schoolchildren [...]

I did a whole series of radio and TV interviews today to mark National Bike Week. Cycling England, on whose board I sit, put out a press release giving some statistics on how cycling both reduces the carbon footprint and entails health and fitness benefits.
People often express great surprise when I say I cycle round [...]

Possibly the most difficult task of a journalist is to dig behind the self-interested positions of both sides in an argument and get the real story. There has been much hoo-ha over the partial closure of 40 ticket offices on the London Underground. Transport for London claim this is a sensible move given that more [...]

It’s not only in the south east that rail is booming. The three northernmost franchises in England, Transpennine, Northern and Merseyrail are all experiencing phenomenal growth, helped by relatively low fares and the healthy economy. Indeed, growth rates in the north are higher than in the south, with Transpennine experiencing an amazing 40 per cent [...]