Lord Adonis interview: the line manager
A crisis is creeping up on the tracks. The railways are facing their most difficult year since privatisation in the mid 1990s because passenger numbers are set to fall in the face of the recession....
View ArticleJay Walder’s London experience will prove useful in New York
When Jay Walder, who was confirmed on Thursday as the new chief of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, arrived in London to be finance director of Transport for London in 2000, he was given a...
View ArticleThe state put railways on the map
Review by Andrew AdonisPublished: October 4 2009 21:17 | Last updated: October 4 2009 21:17Blood, Iron & Gold: How the Railways Transformed the World By Christian Wolmar Atlantic Books...
View ArticleBlood, Iron and Gold review by Harry Mead
THANK the railways for – air hostesses. Their advent was an unintended by-product of the US’s celebrated Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.Constructed between 1868 and the mid-1880s, it linked...
View ArticleIs there really a financial crisis on the railways?
Almost unnoticed, the railways are enjoying an investment boom. Major projects, such as Crossrail, Thameslink and the East London Line Extension are under construction while electrification of the...
View ArticleBlood, Iron and Gold review by Matthew Engel
In the depths of last winter, I had to get back home by train and plane from St Moritz via Zurich, after two feet of snow had fallen in the Alpine valleys and a few inches in south-east England. You...
View ArticleAmerica needs to focus on high speed rail
President Obama has repeatedly insisted that there is no reason why Europe or China, rather than the United States, should have the world’s fastest trains, and since coming to office he has committed...
View ArticleAdonis in a hurry
This was supposed to be an interview with Theresa Villiers, the little known shadow transport spokeswoman but she proved to be an elusive character. After a dozen phone calls to her office which were...
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How the Civil War was won on the railways
Among many other things, the Civil War marked the first significant use of the railroad as a military tool. Between the opening of the first European and American railroads in 1830 and the outbreak of...
View ArticleGreening’s dilemma over HS2
Justine Greening, the new transport secretary, faces a daunting learning curve on the complexities of the rail industry as she prepares to make decisions on a range of railway projects that involve...
View ArticleMake London a haven for cyclists
London has become a cycling city – and Britain something of a cycling nation – by default. The recent surge in its popularity has been a grassroots phenomenon, prompted by overcrowded and expensive...
View ArticleWhat would have happened if BR had stayed in the public sector?
It was no surprise British Rail was the last of the big privatisations of the Tory governments of 1979 to 1997. Mrs Thatcher had counselled one of her most ideological acolytes, Nicholas Ridley,...
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