Rail 977: Sandwich joke masks thin gruel
Perhaps it shouldn’t matter. Mark Harper, in his keynote speech, went for that old trope of mentioning British Rail sandwiches ...
Rail 976: Eurostar contradictions
We live in strange, indeed confusing times. In the wider political economy, we have a Chancellor of the Exchequer who ...
Rail 975: The secret negotiations over rail reform
So what is happening in the Department for Transport while the railways steadily fall apart before our eyes to the ...
Rail 974: Optimism hard to find; and rail’s big man
Of necessity, a New Year requires a modicum of optimism. Having done 50 or more media interviews over the past ...
Rail 973: Rail’s annus horribilis
This year, to borrow a timely term from our late Queen, has been the annus horribilis for the railways. Just ...
Driverless car vision abandoned
So what happens when a dream turns into, well, a pipedream? I spent today to find out by attending a ...
Rail 972: Pay and productivity issues must be separated
My second favourite statistic uncovered while researching my various books is that British Railways, during its 50 year history, shed ...
Rail 971: The train wins out over big tech
Time to take a breather away from the crazy hurly burly of the day to day railway and pause a ...
Rail 970: Harper’s hard agenda
To say we live in extraordinary times qualifies as understatement of the year. Consider the bald facts that we are ...
Rail 969: Ms Trevelyan’s emollient tone
(written in October and now already out of date!) At the time of writing, Anne-Marie Trevelyan is transport secretary and ...
Rail 968: HS2 future uncertain
(This was written before the Nov 17th announcement which appears to leave much HS2 spending intact though scepticism remains about ...
Rail 967: The slow death of Great British Railways
Great British Railways looks set to be stillborn. All the indications are that the legislation to create it promised by ...
What Truss might have done
(Events rather overtook this column!) By the time you read this, there will be a new transport secretary under the ...
rail 966: The Nobody Gives a Damn Railway phenomenon is all too prevalent
I have been inundated with responses to my column in the last issue bemoaning the fact that levels service are ...