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Let’s spell it out: cars are a menace
By Christian Wolmar and Pearl Ahrens In terms of transport, the new post-pandemic normal is looking worse than the old normal. Without a clear strategy for how to deter people from jumping in their cars as they start travelling again, the roads will become even more congested than before, with all the accompanying environmental and social damage. Restraining car use – whether through pricing and taxation or physical measures...
March 2021 Newsletter
Christian Wolmar’s March newsletter: Anonymity is killing fair debate Dear subscriber, The ferocity of the arguments over low traffic neighbourhoods still never ceases to amaze me. I wrote, in a piece for LabourList, only half-jokingly that they had become the most controversial transport issue of the day, greater even than HS2 or the £27bn roads programme. The rows have continued and several LTNs have been removed by councils after...
High costs are damaging the potential for rail recovery
One of the worst outcomes of the privatisation of the railways a quarter of a century ago is the failure to get costs down. Indeed, quite the contrary. The cost of doing anything on the railway seems to have risen at a higher rate than inflation. In a way that is hardly surprising and this has happened in other organisations like the BBC and the NHS. If you separate...
Letter to The Guardian: When I played at Wentworth golf course
Wentworth golf club was not always that posh (The rich vs the very, very rich: the Wentworth golf club rebellion, 2 March). When I was a child it was my playground, as I was dragged there every weekend by my golf-playing parents, who paid a mere £100 or so a year to play. I was left to my own devices to wander round the huge estate, climbing in the...
rail 926: Integrated transport, an old concept that must be revived
Remember ‘integrated transport’. It was a concept promoted by John Prescott, the much underrated transport secretary whose excellent 10 year transport plan was killed off by reactionary forces in Number 10. I had not realised, though, until researching my new book on British Railways, that the idea is far older, having first been promoted through the creation of the British Transport Commission by the Labour government in the aftermath...
Latest headlines
Let’s spell it out: cars are a menace
March 2021 Newsletter
High costs are damaging the potential for rail recovery
Letter to The Guardian: When I played at Wentworth golf course
rail 926: Integrated transport, an old concept that must be revived
Rail 925: Franchising on life support
February 2021 newsletter
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About Christian Wolmar
Christian Wolmar is an award winning writer and broadcaster specialising in transport and is the author of a series of books on railway history. He was Labour's candidate for the 2016 Richmond Park & North Kingston by-election and also ran to be Labour's candidate in the last London mayoral election. Read more >>
The more I think about the #ESL, there seems something fishy about the whole affair. How come they never tried to justify the plan? Did they really not test the idea in market research? Can lots of v rich ppl be that stupid? I think it was set up to fail.But why
