Railways must remain relevant to survive
To the Mechanicals to hear this year’s railway division chairman give his address. Grand Central MD Richard McClean took the lectern and made the case for keeping rail relevant to…
Life begins at 40 for HSTs moving to Scotland
Scotland has a new railway icon to join the Forth Bridge. National operator ScotRail has been showing off its first HST that’s come from Great Western Railway as it prepares…
Waterloo delay has echoes of 1988’s Clapham accident
Monday December 12 1988 dawned cold and clear in South West London. It would end with commuters reading a banner headline in the Evening Standard – RUSH HOUR DISASTER –…
Give the East Midlands easier journeys to Manchester
We all have closed lines we wish we’d travelled on. I’d have loved to traverse the Waverley Route through lonely Riccarton Junction but it closed before I was born. I…
Commuter fares show rail’s complexity
National Fare Rise Day produced plenty of heat but little light. Supporters and opponents of today’s privatised railway traded blows with dodgy statements. We’ll take the supporters first. The Rail…
Stations must put passengers first
Virgin Trains East Coast is blessed with some magnificent stations. Top of the list for me are Newcastle and York. Both have grand trainsheds above long, curved platforms that draw…
There’s plenty of ambition and potential for Tyne and Wear Metro
There’s a gulf between deciding to do something and working out how to pay for it. Tyne and Wear’s Metrocars first appeared from Met-Camm’s Birmingham works in the late-1970s. They…
Size matters for the future of UK train operators
Private train operators have been running for 20 years. The ‘Big Four’ created in 1923 lasted 25 years before government nationalised the railways. The result, BR, disappeared just shy of…
20 years of writing about railways
Twenty years ago RAIL 308 landed on newsstands with a pair of Class 20s on the cover and news inside of a fresh-faced new arrival on the magazine’s staff. I…
As the general election’s dust settles, the only certainty is uncertainty
A strong railway relies on a strong economy. And a strong economy needs a strong railway to move goods and ferry people to and from work, particularly into city centres,…