Tunnel has not fulfilled its promise
It is 15 years since I shared a train with John Major and various other dignitaries that took us under the Channel for the inauguration of the tunnel. The day was rather marred for the British by a typically provocative comment from the Président François Mitterrand about how travellers would have time to admire the Garden of England of the Kent countryside as there was no high speed lines to ...
Passengers pay price in great railways fiasco
RAIL fares are up again. Amid the chaos of last week, it almost went unreported that most passengers faced the double whammy of above inflation rises. Yet, the railways are booming, with record numbers letting the train take the strain as people flee congested roads and overcrowded airports which have been turned into a nightmare by inefficient and ridiculous security measures.
In a normal industry, where usage was increasing by between ...
Higher fares and crowded trains…the dismal future
THE East Coast Main Line, the principal rail route linking Yorkshire to the rest of the country, is becoming full.
According to a consultation document from Network Rail on future demand on the line, passenger numbers on long distance and commuter routes could increase by 40 per cent over the next decade. With many people already sometimes having to stand on some trains all the way between London and Leeds or ...
Are we ready to move out of the slow lane
We love to moan about the awfulness of our transport system. The roads are full, the trains are late, and the planes don’t take off because of a little bit of fog. But is it really that bad?
The Treasury commissioned Sir Rod Eddington, the former head of British Airways to look into Britain’s long term transport needs and when he reported in December his findings were surprisingly positive. He found ...
We all pay the price as GNER goes off rails
THE decline of GNER, one of Britain's best rail companies, into near bankruptcy is an indictment of the way that the railways have still not adapted to privatisation a decade after they were first sold off.
GNER will be lucky to survive much beyond Christmas. Its most immediate problem is the crisis at its parent company, Sea Containers, which last week sought protection under Chapter 11, a procedure of American company ...