Rail 914: A crisis like we have never seen before
‘Crisis, what crisis?’ There are many people repeating the words that Jim Callaghan actually never used. These are the arguing ...
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Rail 913: Wrong way to try to prove that rail is safe
Statistics are a big part of my business as a journalist. I love it when I can refer to the ...
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Rail 912: Accident highlights new danger for the railways
Of all the headline stories that become the subject of these columns, this is the one I have dreaded having ...
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Rail 911: Warning: cuts ahead
The scene: Waterloo station, on Saturday, the first day of August. Time: noon. I have to negotiate a long funnel ...
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Treasury draws up cuts plan for the railways
Devastating plans to mothball parts of the railway and drastically reduce services are being considered by the Treasury in the ...
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Rail 910: the campaign that the rail industry must run to save the railways
It is impossible to exaggerate the extent of the crisis that the railways are facing. Glib optimism that people will ...
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Rail 909: J’Accuse – the culprits wrecking the rail industry
(With apologies to Émile Zola) A letter to Boris Johnson, Prime Minister Sir Permit me to set out how a ...
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Rail 908: The future is vertical…and the slavery myth
Let’s look to the future for once, given that the present is so bleak. I will desist from pointing out, ...
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Rail 907: Muddled policy wrecking the railways
I am at risk of repeating myself. I would love to be writing about something other than the impact on ...
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Rail 906: The railways must stop telling people not to use them
Whatever happened to ALARP? That’s the safety principle by which the railway is supposed to function in relation to safety ...
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Rail 905: Risk assessment is key to future of the railways
Boris Johnson’s speech to the nation on Sunday May 10th was rambly, incoherent and he failed dismally in his attempts ...
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Rail 904: Abnormal, the new normal
We are now in the new normal of empty train stations, reduced timetables and injunctions to people not to take ...
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Rail 903: The new normal is totally abnormal
As a journalist for nigh on half a century, who has covered all kinds of extraordinary stories, big and small, ...
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Rail 902: The trains must be kept running – even empty
We have found out what living in a sci-fi dystopia is like. Fortunately, the basic services such as water and ...
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Rail 901: Reaching into the unknown unknowns
Harold Macmillan used to say that what he was most worried about when Prime Minister were ‘events’ or, as Donald ...
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Rail 900: Has the franchising question been answered at last?
Things are too busy and exciting in the rail industry to spend the whole of this column looking back but ...
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Rail 899: HS2 arguments are fundamentally dishonest
One day there will be a superb book to be written about the shenanigans over the decision whether to build ...
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Rail 898: Beeching cuts are not going to be reversed
This is one of those rare times when the fact that this column has to be written nearly a week ...
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Rail 897: My love affair with Crossrail
Here is the news: Crossrail is happening. Yes, of course it is late and the most recent announcement, which has ...
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Rail 896: A decade that was not all progress
The start of a new year, decade even, is obviously a time to both reflect on the past and to ...
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