Christian Wolmar

In 2009, it will be difficult to get away from issues that go to the heart of the way that the railways are run and, in particular, the franchising structure. Everyone knows it is going to be a tough year, but just how hard will determine whether the system survives or results in a total overhaul. Certainly, decisions by various operators in the run up ...

    The government’s response to the credit crunch crisis is taking it into strange places and forcing ministers to consider very fundamental issues. As Andrew Rawnsley wrote so pertinently in The Observer last week (Dec 14), does it really make sense to reduce VAT in order to allow people to keep spending their money on large quantities of imported goods.  ...

I wish I believed in Network Rail. By that I mean, I wish I had confidence in the structure, in the people running it, in its ability to deal with the train operators and passengers and ultimately in its long term strategy. And the trouble is that despite knowing that it has some excellent people working for it who really do want to make a ...

  Went to ministerial drinks last night. Totally new Department press team who asked me things like had I ever been there before. Sweet. Meeting Geoff Hoon for the first time was like a déjà vu. He was exactly like he is on TV: superficially charming but patronising and smug, a man who clearly had no compunction sending hundreds of British troops ...

The strength of the vote against the congestion charge plan in Manchester effectively kills off the government’s strategy of trying to bribe local votes into accepting such schemes.  This one had everything going for it: a bribe of billions of pounds of transport improvements, a strong campaign and a relatively cheap charge, amounting to less than the extra motorists ...