Christian Wolmar's March newsletter
Christian Wolmar
Dear subscriber,
It’s mainly HS2 this month, with the consultation process officially launched on the last day of February and the debate hotting up. I have written a couple of articles on HS2 and come under very heavy fire on the website about my stance of opposing the plan.
Some people on the site, and elsewhere, suggest that it is wrong of me, as a prominent railway supporter and writer, to oppose the project, as I am undermining the case for rail investment.
Nevertheless, I remained unpersuaded and, indeed, the more I think about it, the more I am worried about the way that the railway network will be destroyed by HS2 receiving all the money for investment, and indeed eating up considerable amounts of subsidy for the foreseeable future. It is interesting that Network Rail’s own analysis of the future use of the West Coast, without the extra measures which are an alternative to HS2, only suggests that 12 per cent of trains in 2024 will have people standing. And that’s on the assumption that growth will continue unabated, and without the massive RPI + 3 per cent fares rises being taken into account.
The more angry of my opponents suggest my opposition is a calculated attempt to be controversial and therefore to attract more work and attention. That is, of course, nonsense. My reputation is based on journalistic accuracy and on the coherence of my arguments, and I would be unable to sustain an argument that I did not believe in. Of course, I may be wrong, and HS2 is the best thing since the Stephensons designed the Rocket, but the evidence in its supports, so far, strikes me as extremely flimsy. As a fellow sceptic put it, how come predict and provide has been discredited for roads and air, but remains for rail. And of course, there is no shortage of people who agree with me.
Otherwise, I have merely blogged, so far, on the bizarre decision to go ahead with the order for Hitachi trains to replace HSTs. Hitachi, by the way, was so stung by my comment about vibration on their Kent domestic trains that they responded and I have posted it on my website here – scroll down the comments to find it.
I have been working, with Richard Wilson, of One Foot in the Grave fame, on a Channel 4 Dispatches programme, to be screened on March 21. It has the rather forbidding title of Train Journeys from Hell but both me and the producer have struggled to make it rather more balanced. Fingers crossed. There is a hilarious section with Richard Wilson ringing the automated service on rail enquiries – available here.
I am giving two talks on each day of next weekend, March 12/13 at the London Transport Museum Acton depot on Engines of War and Subterranean Railway and I will also be signing books sold at a discount. Details here
In terms of journalistic output, I have lost my Transport Times column not through any failings, but because the publishers decided they could no longer afford either me or Ben Webster of The Times. As it was fun, but by coincidence I have just been offered a similar column in Surveyor
Magazine, so watch out for that next month.
My regular columns this month, therefore, are confined to Rail magazine. The first tells the rather strange story of how a franchise commitment to boost the number of trains between London and Brighton was stymied by the regulator. The second covers the rather intellectually-challenged franchise consultation process, which goes nowhere nearer answering my oft-repeated question, ‘what is franchising for?’
With it not being a TSSA magazine month, my only other piece has been in the Sunday Express which inevitably was on HS2 here
I now have a rather overlarge stock of the DVDs I have done on Fire and Steam, and Subterranean Railway. To buy these for £11 each or £20 for both, simply email me via the site or pay by PayPal to xi...@pro-net.co.uk
The site, btw, is getting record numbers of visitors, and is being revamped – to help pay for the cost please click on the ads. It really does make a difference! I continue to tweet like a canary, and you can follow me @christianwolmar – Twitter is becoming the established way of keeping up with the news, and its fascinating watching a new media, about which I was sceptical initially, growing so fast.
Here’s looking forward to a warm spring.
Christian