Christian Wolmar

Ken Livingstone could not have wished for better publicity than Porsche’s threat to take legal action over the increases to the congestion charge for ‘gas guzzlers’. It is a spectacular own goal by the car company. Obviously, its bosses thought the issue would will play well with the minority who own the car but most people will see it as self interested nonsense. Clearly, the company’s PR managers did not think ...

The rolling stock plan slipped out by the Department for Transport without any briefing or press conference at the end of last month is a typical example of the ‘pretend capitalism’ through which the rail industry is run. ‘Pretend capitalism’ is the fig leaf for continuing to keep the industry in the private sector when, in fact, it is being run by civil servants spending our money, and the rolling ...

Listening to the speaker from the Department for Transport, Jacqui Wilkinson, at the Greater London Assembly's Driving Change conference on what to do about congestion, I heard a new expression: she said that the Department was 'modally agnostic', meaning that it was not bothered about how we get there, just that we do. This is quite extraordinary and explains how government policy has surrepticiously changed over the years. Gone is the ...

At last, the mayoral election is hotting up around genuine issues that affect Londoners rather than the antics of the two main candidates whose eccentricities have threatened to turn the hustings into a bumper episode of Celebrity Big Brother. On the face of it, Ken Livingstone appears to be taking a big electoral risk with his changes to the congestion charge.  By imposing swinging charges on gas guzzlers while allowing smaller ...

I’ve been asked to sum up ideas at a conference on congestion and I realise just what a difficult issue it is. Congestion is the result of a combination of economic success and transport policy failure. In a rational world, there would be sufficient incentives to ensure enough people did not jump in their cars every time they wanted to get somewhere, even to the local shops. Congestion, in other words, ...

Having travelled through St Pancras International several times since its opening November, I realise that the fulsome praise given to the new station during the launch period, not least by me, needs some reappraisal. Don’t get me wrong – the station is a magnificent achievement and the roof a wonderful sight for people coming to London for the first time. However, there is a lot wrong which cannot just be ...