Christian Wolmar

  My new book, Engines of War, which is being published next month, highlights a little known aspect of the history of the railways. They were responsible for enabling warfare to be carried out on a far bigger scale than anything before.  Whereas Napoleon could bring together a few hundred thousand troops for a short period of time, his armies had to be on the move soon afterwards as otherwise they ...

In response to a couple of comments on my previous blog, I have now reached Bologna, my destination, after 950 miles. Yes, Italy has been a rather different experience. The main roads are very busy and so often are the alternatives. While in France it was easy to find alternatives and really see France Profonde, that has been more difficult in Italy. The towns, too, are different with several having a ...

The search for about £1-1.5bn cuts to the rail industry is now on. That’s broadly the amount that will need to be taken out of the industry – which currently turns over around £11bn, £5bn of which comes from the government. Assuming that transport has to take a bit more than its fair share, it always does, even if rail bears less than other modes, we are still talking of ...

Its taken me more than two weeks to blog on my mega cycle ride we have reached Italy after cycling over the alps. We have done around 50 to 60 miles a day and it has got easier as we have got fitter and the Col du Petit St Bernard with its 5 per cent gradient was not the great obstacle we thought it might be. So far 750 miles ...

The pace of events is hotting up on the railway, making it one of those times when there is enough happening to fill three or four columns. In the few days running up to the Budget, there was the announcement of the sale of High Speed One, the revelation that Iain Coucher the head of Network Rail is leaving (as predicted by Mystic Wolmar), the release of the preliminary findings ...

Michael Williams, On the Slow Train, twelve Great British railway journeys, Preface Publishing, £14 99. Britain’s love affair with the train is based on romance, rather than reality. It is not the modern trains branded with the garish vinyls of the privatised operators, hurtling up and down the country at 125mph that excites the imagination, nor the commuter tin boxes crammed daily to the gunwales at Waterloo. No, it is the ...