A journey along the Western
Well, who knew? First Great Western has a Writer-on-the-Train. He’s James Attlee and his book chronicling his journeys from Paddington was published in mid-May, entitled Station to Station. Having already…
Will we ever see Eurostar’s Channel Tunnel monopoly end?
I wonder it we will ever see an alternative to Eurostar providing all passenger rail services through the Channel Tunnel? I had great hopes that DB might provide some competition…
The enduring delight of nostalgia
Nostalgia, says the old joke, is not what it used to be. When applied to rail, the concept is as old as rail itself. Doubtless there was a time when…
Bringing electric trains to North West England
There’s very little under the sun that’s new. Promoting and pushing through major rail projects today has characteristics that former generations of railwaymen will recognise. When that doyen of railway…
Network Rail chairman talks cars at National Railway Museum dinner
Richard Parry-Jones talked cars at last week’s National Railway Museum 40th anniversary dinner, warning the assembled railwaymen that cars were closing the gap on rail’s environmental advantage. Parry-Jones has had…
Network Rail is stifling important debate
I’ve been writing recently for a quarterly magazine called Rail Review. It’s aimed at senior railway managers and, uniquely I think for railway magazines, it is peer-reviewed. In other words,…
Great War Railwaymen
The First World War was not the first in which railways played an important role but it was the first to use railways on such a scale. For WW1 was…
Chiltern line reopens following Harbury landslip
Well done to Network Rail for reopening the London-Birmingham route through Harbury Cutting following a landslip in late January. It disrupted over 130 daily Chiltern, CrossCountry and freight services as…
Class 319s come to Northern England
Let’s welcome Northern’s newest electric train fleet to service. And welcome its oldest fleet into use. For they are the same. Northern’s Class 319s entered passenger traffic with that operator…
Network Rail’s Christmas problems reveal deeper faults
It’s been a bad month for Network Rail. High profile failures over Christmas at King’s Cross and Paddington, followed by problems at London Bridge, have put plenty of pressure on…