Christian Wolmar's august newsletter, the first since May
Christian Wolmar
Christian Wolmar’s August Newsletter
I am sorry that my schedule got so crazy that I missed out on the June and July newsletters, the first time since the site began in 2004 that I have not sent out a monthly bulletin.However, I will try to make up for it: this is the biggest ever, and there’s a discount offer for a cycling conference, and a cheap deal on my signed hardback books. So read on.
While I was putting the finishing touches on my book on the Transsiberian, due to be published on November 7, I was asked to do a very quick railway history book for Dorling Kindersley due to be published in time for father’s day in May 2014 and that has taken up all the slack – and a bit more - along with a considerable amount of journalism and media work, as well as thankfully a couple of weeks off in June. So my apologies for the gap.
First, the special offer on the cycling conference. I am chairing a conference on cycling on September 3rd in London and the organisers have offered special rates to my subscribers. Go to bit.ly/19jX4lK
On the transport front, things have, indeed, been relatively quiet except, of course, for the terrible Spanish train crash which remains, to some extent, still unexplained. Simply blaming the driver is to miss the point. He should never have been left in a position where he had no safety features to back him up, and there does appear to have been a gap which left him exposed. This came as the third of a little run of accidents – in Canada, France and Switzerland – which had the more excitable parts of the media asking whether trains are safe. I spent a considerable of time pointing out that a staggering 1.2m people are killed on the roads annually.
There has been, too, the usual fares announcement. What other industry, I wonder, manages to ensure there is maximum fuss about its price increases so that we get it three times over – July, December and January? That said, the situation of above inflation increases has to end. Politically it is becoming as unacceptable as fuel tax rises and, of course, the oddity is that the rises are based on regulations brought in to prevent train companies exploiting their monopoly position. So instead, the government is ripping off commuters and other rail passengers.
It was, by the way, pathetic of the Association of Train Operating Companies to seek to justify these price rises, rather than saying – ‘it’s not our fault guv, blame the government’. Of course it is probably too scared to do that because of biting the hand that feeds it but one day Michael Roberts, its boss, should just tell it like it is.
There is plenty of new material on the site. There’s two items from The Oldie, one on my mayoral campaign here, the other a review of a couple of Beeching books here .There’s a couple of Surveyor columns, too – one on my obsession with yellow lines here, the other on latest roads announcements here.
In a rare incursion onto the pages of the Evening Standard, I wrote a piece against the idea of HS2 here . I have put four Rail columns on the site recently covering Labour plans, the wonderful world of rail compensation schemes, the TUC analysis of rail privatisation, and ATOC’s defence of franchising
The dates have gone a bit haywire but I will try to get them back on track.
In Surveyor magazine, I covered my idea to scrap yellow lines here and whether new roads are needed, here
The national newspaper contributions include the Daily Express on fares, the Sunday Telegraph on the state of the railways here and in The Times I wrote about the complexity of the structure here. The two TSSA Journal contributions covered rolling stock and the spate of rail accidents in July here
I have been bloggin’ on a few other sites, too. I wrote a piece on judging the success of megaprojects for an academic site here and several for various Labour blogs for my mayoral campaign on fares, renationalisation and, inevitably, HS2
If you manage to read your way through that lot, you deserve a medal or one of my books. So, to compensate for the lack of the previous newsletter, here’s a great book offer: I have just received extra hardback stocks of all my history books – except Subterranean Railway – and can send out signed copies of – Engines of War, The Great Railway Revolution, Fire and Steam and Blood, Iron & Gold for £10 plus £2 p and p. No p & p for multiple orders. I also have Turkish and Italian editions of Blood – any takers? Just email me your address at Christia...@gmail.com
My mayoral campaign rolls on and I will be holding a fringe meeting for the campaign at the Labour party conference on September 24 at the Ship Inn near the conference centre at 6-8 pm which will be on the theme of what can we expect from a Labour London mayor.
There has been a glitch on subscribing to the newsletter as Google groups no longer accepts the format that was set out but I am now changing over to an Amazon system which should be OK. (Why does Google, the do now evil company, do things like this? It does show how we are at the mercy of a few, principally American, corporations. Do email me if you are having problems.
Enjoy the rest of the summer
Cheers
Christian Wolmar