Spectator
Chinese banquet rituals
When heading for China on a business trip I was somewhat bemused to be warned about the banquets I would ...
Life of Pie: How paedophiles tried to become respectable
The man who walked up the stairs was the embodiment of the cartoon image of a paedophile. Grey, thinning hair, ...
The HS2 dilemma
Choose your expression: ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place’; ‘I wouldn’t start from here if I were you’; ...
The tram Olympics
On a sunny weekend in August, the fortunate folk of Frankfurt were entertained by the 11th annual tram-drivers competition, with ...
‘elf n safety not to blame over Jacobite train demise
When the operators of the most popular steam train service in Britain decided to challenge the safety authorities, they were ...
Why is HS2 costing so much?
The members of the Denham Waterski Club are among the few people in the Chilterns who are grateful for HS2 ...
Book review: Andrew Martin’s love affair with the Metro
Andrew Martin is in love. Head over heels in love, quite unable to control himself in his appreciation of the ...
The return of the sleeper train
It’s a fabulous combination: travelling by train and sleeping. And the good news is that the concept of sleeper trains ...
The Queen should have gone by train
The Queen loved the royal train. The Royal yacht was a luxury that was more for show than convenience but ...
Spectator letter: Faux capitalism
Ross Clark's compelling critique (August 13) of the water companies comes to the wrong conclusion. He is right to say ...
How Great British Railways can learn from the old BR
British Railways lives again. Well sort of. The Queen’s Speech contains plans for a Transport Bill the centrepiece of which ...
Spectator review of Cathedrals of Steam
By Julian Glover I began this book waiting for a diesel train to Derby, under the windy, boxy, flat-roofed bit ...
Signal box battle
Petersfield signal box is in the wrong place. Or at least it is now. Actually, when it was built in ...
Book review: Monisha Rajesh, Around the world in 80 trains
Monisha Rajesh wrote lovingly about the Indian railways in her previous book but this set her wondering whether the train ...
The great train wreck
A couple of weeks ago I met David Grime and Alan Noble, members of the Lakes Line Rail User Group, ...
Doubts over driverless cars in the lion’s den
I was worried that going to the autonomous vehicle exhibition in Stuttgart would be rather like an atheist walking into ...
The big Spectator driverless car debate
My debate with car enthusiast and advertising man Rory Sutherland Wolmar: Let’s face it: we’re talking about a technology that will ...
Review: Britain’s best 100 railway stations by Simon Jenkins
Stations, according to Simon Jenkins, are the forgotten part of the railway experience. People love the trains, the journey, the ...
Book review: Night Trains by Andrew Martin
Night Trains, the Rise and Fall of the Sleeper by Andrew Martin, Profile Books, £14 99 As a child, I ...
Review of Simon Bradley’s The Railways, Nation, Network and People
Simon Bradley dates the demise of the on-board meal service to 1962, when Pullman services no longer offered croutons with ...