Christian Wolmar

Christian Wolmar Train companies are expecting 400,000 people to travel into London by train for the Royal Wedding, far more than normal on a Bank Holiday. Many of those coming from afar will be enjoying the ride on what is rather confusingly called a High Speed Train 125 which provides the backbone of Britain’s intercity services. These diesel trains, which actually have a locomotive at both ends,  are reliable and very ...

Christian Wolmar A few months ago, a senior train operator met with the head of Co-operatives UK, which lobbies to spread the co-operative idea, to discuss the feasibility of applying the co-operative model to Britain’s railways. The result is a pamphlet I have just written for Co-operatives UK setting out how creating a co-operative or mutual structure could work in practice on Britain’s railways (you can find it at http://www.uk.coop/rail). When ...

I had tea at the much touted Midland hotel in St Pancras, now sadly renamed as the St Pancras Renaissance. And that disregard for history seems to have percolated through the refubishment despite the close attentions of English Heritage. Don't get me wrong. It is a fabulous, amazing building and some of what they have done is really innovative and imaginative. For example, the Booking Office is now a bar come ...