No easy answer to CrossCountry’s conundrum
Cross Country was the forgotten part of British Rail’s inter-city network. It didn’t concentrate on London and so found itself a low priority for investment.It hit privatisation 20 years ago…
SWR must reverse years of decline at Waterloo
Waterloo’s railway is generally reckoned to be Britain’s only profitable route. Income from passengers exceeds the costs of running trains and operating its tracks. Government benefits from the surplus.Those tracks…
Privatisation… nationalisation… or regionalisation?
Bold reform. That’s the call from Paul Plummer at the top of the Rail Delivery Group for the review by Keith Williams, the former chief executive of British Airways.Yet Transport…
Scotland pushes towards a better railway
Those who do nothing make no mistakes. So the saying goes and I was reminded of it while talking to a journalist from the Scotsman newspaper of the problems ScotRail…
There’s a place for rail as internet shopping boosts parcels
Cast your mind back a little over a decade. It’s January 2008 and RAIL 553 is warning that there’s little time to make use of Euston station’s freight facilities.It quotes…
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…