I have had a couple of bad experiences with train operators recently (and one good one,but you will have to read about that in my Rail column). The most unpleasant was a nasty little train guard who would not let me onto a Virgin train despite the fact that I told him I had been unable [...]
Archive of October, 2009
Once upon a time, every self-respecting schoolboy owned books with titles like The Wonder Book of Railway Wonders or Thrilling Trains of the World. They contained magical tales of speed records, lofty viaducts, plunging tunnels and streamlined locomotives. It was a golden age that many thought had disappeared for ever - until now, when suddenly [...]
Almost unnoticed, the railways are enjoying an investment boom. Major projects, such as Crossrail, Thameslink and the East London Line Extension are under construction while electrification of the Great Western line to Bristol and South Wales and the Liverpool - Manchester route has been promised. There is even talk of building a north south high [...]
THANK the railways for - air hostesses. Their advent was an unintended by-product of the US’s celebrated Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.
Constructed between 1868 and the mid-1880s, it linked Topeka, in Kansas, with Los Angeles via Chicago and Sante Fe in New Mexico.
Christian Wolmar recalls that the line “became the most successful of the [...]
Oct
16
Boris bashes the bus users
Boris Johnson is discovering the hard way that as mayor he cannot just be the blond buffoon with the good one-liners but that running London involves making tough decisions. He faced a difficult choice between cutting back services, particularly buses which eat up £600m of subsidy per year, or putting up fares to ensure that [...]
RAILWAYS, declares Christian Wolmar in this illuminating study, “were the most important invention of the second millennium, transporting the Industrial Revolution from a few hot spots to large parts of the world”.
Like the motor car in the 20th century and the internet in recent times, railways have for the most part been bringers of wealth, [...]