Christian Wolmar

The word ‘consultation’ fills me with dread. Governments have a legal duty to ‘consult’ or otherwise they face a judicial review, but for the most part the whole process is a sham. People and organisations are asked for their views, which are promptly ignored. Ideological governments like the current one are particularly prone to ignore the responses to their ideas and proceed anyway. Remember the Poll Tax! This is certainly the ...

The franchising system in the rail industry is rather like those cheap Chinese buffets that have become commonplace in places with little culinary tradition. It all looks rather good and tasty but once you tuck in, none of it is very satisfactory and what promised to be a feast turns out to be a rather inadequate lunch.  And so it is with franchises. Several recipes have been tried and whatever happens ...

This was supposed to be an interview with Theresa Villiers, the little known shadow transport spokeswoman but she proved to be an elusive character. After a dozen phone calls to her office which were answered by people called Giles and Phillipa who all seemed incapable of returning calls, the New Statesman was snubbed as, apparently Ms Villiers was not available for interview, as clearly she wants to remain an unknown ...

So much happening all bunched together, that I have had no time to blog - how do those professional bloggers do it, and earn their living as well?. So a quick few points on high speed rail and the PPP, but most of it will be in my next Rail column. As David has commented on a previous thread, the Tories' reaction to the high speed rail announcement suggests they really ...

Remember the Tories. They used to run the country under an iron lady by the name of Thatcher and a philanderer called Major but it seems so long ago that we have almost completely forgotten them. That is not surprising because, in terms ...

It’s taken a long time but at last the Tories have produced a document setting out their rail policy. Chris Grayling, when he was shadow transport secretary, had promised to produce one nearly two years ago but he was prevented from doing so because he had committed himself to vertical integration and that proved too radical for his colleagues. So his successor, Teresa Villiers, has set out a policy that ...