Christian Wolmar's January newsletter

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Christian Wolmar

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Jan 18, 2012, 9:09:45 AM1/18/12

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Dear subscriber

The newsletter is rather late this month because I have been spending time finishing my book on US railroads – to be published in May - but at last I have sent off the edited version. It turned out, at 130,000 words, rather longer than expected and even then, of course, much is left out. But at least it documents what was and remains the largest rail system in the world, unknown to most people who think that the US hardly has any railways. Yet, amazingly, 40 per cent of freight is carried on rail. Details about how to get advanced signed copies will be in future newsletters.

Meanwhile there’s no shortage of things happening in the UK, though progress seems to be slow on some fronts such as the long awaited franchising policy and the related command paper for the future structure of the industry. I suspect this is because the conundrum of ‘what is franchising for?’, my oft asked question cannot be answered. Nor can the fundamental problem of reconciling longer franchises with retaining control over poorly performing operators, or of attracting investment from operators when, in fact, their horizon will always be temporary rather permanent. I look forward to the government’s attempt to work its way out of these dilemmas.

Obviously, the big news is the decision – hardly surprising – of the government to go ahead with HS2. However, far from ending the controvesy over the issue, the poor business case, continued environmental concerns and widespread scepticism about the availability of the money mean that doubts over the scheme remain. In many ways, it is a shame that the opposition to the project is so dominated by the Chiltern residents – who so obviously have a vested interest – when there are far wider questions over the viabilty of the scheme, some of which I have addressed in my blogs and wider writings. Some of these articles will not be on the site until next month as they have not yet appeared in print.

HS2 will run and run, but should not cloud the fact that there is considerable investment in the railways taking place at the moment. In London, in particular, it is amazing that there are simultaneous rebuilds of stations such as Blackfriars and Kings Cross as well as those on Crossrail such as Tottenham Court – I visited the site recently and it is amazing what is being done in such a tigh space – Farringdon and Paddington. Outside the capital, too, there is Reading and New Street, as well as the Northern Hub. It is noticeable that preliminary discussions over the next Network Rail control period – CP4 between 2014 and 2019 – suggest there will be fewer such major game-changing schemes.

One terrible development, hardly reported in the news, is the increase in suicides on the railways. At the moment, there seems to be some every day, perhaps prompted by imitators and the bad economic situation. Very depressing.

The new Rail columns on the site are an analysis of the promises made in the Autumn statement, here, and predictions for the New Year, here.

I’ve written two pieces for The Times this month – one on the gradual recognition that rail fares have become a political issue and a short article on the business case of HS2 which went alongside their news coverage.

I also wrote a short addition to the obituary on Sir Robert Horton in the Guardian, focussing on his role in ensuring the privatisation of Railtrack, a policy that has contributed greatly to the dysfunctional structure of the industry. I explain why he did it, but he was wrong! I have also written a big feature for Who Do You Think You Are magazine on finding your railway ancestors but you will need to buy the mag!

There will soon be plenty more about HS2 – see latest issue of Rail for my analysis on the way that the Department for Transport tried to manipulate coverage - and other developments on the site. Certainly my journalistic output has been higher than usual as transport has been in the news, but I also have to start doing some background reading on my next book, which will be on the Transsiberian, on which I will be travelling some time this year. New Year, new tasks. Ho hum.