Christian Wolmar

The response published yesterday by the Department to the Stern and Eddington reports was hyped up by the Financial Times on Monday with suggestions that it would include definite plans for a high speed rail line and lots of extra motorway lanes. This apparently embarrassed the Department which wanted to slip the report out unnoticed [...]

When I was in Paris last week, I picked up the freesheet paper on the Metro and buried in the middle of the paper was a small piece that attracted my attention. It was a report on the go-ahead being given for an extension of T3, the third tram line, which has proved a resounding [...]

Today, the railways today are an important part of our infrastructure but rather tucked away out of sight and often forgotten. Stations which were once centrepieces of the towns in which they are located find themselves neglected. While the railways are a great way to travel and they are used for over three million journeys [...]

There should be non-elections more often. Thanks to the hype about an early election, the government bounced itself into an announcement that the Crossrail scheme would get the go-ahead. But even before the emails had plopped into the hacks’ inboxes, it was obvious that the announcement raised more questions than it answered. More answers were [...]

Flawed characters are always the most interesting. If fate had been kinder, George Hudson would have been remembered by his popular nickname as the ‘Railway King’, the first railway millionaire who became an MP and delighted the great and good with his lavish parties in his London home.
Unfortunately, his luck run out and the various [...]

Now that Big Gordon is assured of the Premiership, unless he falls under that proverbial bus, it is worth reflecting on one of his biggest mistakes as Chancellor, the creation of the Private Public Partnership for the London Underground.
Having talked to both top and middle managers on both sides of the contract, nothing has changed [...]