Rail 467: Son of privatisation seems fated to be a problem child
Privatisation was designed to cut the cost of the railway to the government. So it's an acute irony that it ...
Rail 466: It’s the system that should be in the dock after Hatfield
If anyone is put on trial for the Hatfield disaster, Christian Wolmar wonders whether it should be the mandarins and ...
Rail 465: Disconnection of Connex brings ‘British Rail Mk 2’
With the removal of Connex from the South Eastern franchise, the 'softly softly' renationalisation of the railway continues. But why, ...
Rail 464: Bowker’s ‘Mission: Impossible’ – solving the capacity conundrum
SRA Chairman Richard Bowker is in an impossible position, at the mercy of forces beyond his control, argues CHRISTIAN WOLMAR ...
Rail 463: Figures expose fragility of Network Rail Experiment
These are bad times for the railway and they're going to get worse before they get better, warns Christian Wolmar ...
Rail 462: Private sector investment proves to be a mirage
While superficially the new franchise deal for SouthCentral looks as if a lot of private money has been attracted into ...
Rail 461: Short sight at the SRA must not wreck the CTRL
With the National Audit Office again turning its attention to the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Christian Wolmar calls for a ...
Rail 460: National Railcard would sugar pill of commuter fare rises
The SRA could sweeten the unpalatable medicine of steep fare rises for politically influential commuters in the South East by ...
Rail 459: Macho rhetoric of the SRA is alienating railway industry
The row over the exclusion of First Group from the new Greater Anglia franchise will be just the first of ...
Rail 458: Franchising needs new model as it nears end of the catwalk
The franchising system has effectively collapsed, contends CHRISTIAN WOLMAR, and now SRA Chairman Richard Bowker will have to respond to ...
Rail 457: SRA must work out the REAL cost and benefits of branches
Forty years after Beeching and 20 since Serpell, the spectre of branch line cuts is once again stalking the railway ...
Rail 456: History repeats itself on Tube and the politicians don’t care
The damage inflicted by privatisation on the surface railway is being replicated on the London Underground whose Managing Director, Paul ...
Rail 455: How can the beast created in Network Rail be tamed?
The SRA specifies what needs to be done and the contractors do the work, so, asks CHRISTIAN WOLMAR, is the ...
Rail 454: Bowker is in a jam as he fails to outwit Whitehall warriors
Richard Bowker has shown his political inexperience by allowing himself to be outmanoeuvred by the politicians over the SRA cuts ...
Rail 453: Another brick dislodged from privatisation’s wobbly edifice
No matter how much ministers and Network Rail try to play it down, the decision to take back the Reading ...
Rail 452: Cowardice and lack of vision stifle hope for the railways
With the railway facing a period of almost unprecedented uncertainty as it enters 2003, CHRISTIAN WOLMAR calls on the industry ...
Rail 451: After the honeymoon, Bowker must make the marriage work
The Strategic Rail Authority chairman has had an impressive first year, but as the time comes for decisions rather than ...
Rail 450: RAIB must have free hand in rail crash investigations
The derailments at Aldwarke Junction and Ealing have again highlighted major safety concerns on the railway. The Government’s announcement of ...
Rail 449: Who’ll dare tell the emperor that he’s wearing no clothes?
Richard Bowker has done a sterling job in pulling the Strategic Rail Authority together, but he remains rooted in the ...
Rail 448: The unintelligible language that’s strangling the railway
When will the privatised railway ever learn from its mistakes? In the wake of the Special Purpose Vehicles concept, the ...
