Trains
This museum is a lesson for all curators
The National Railway Museum is 50 years old, and it’s come over all literary. A quote from Howards End stands…
How the railways shaped modern culture
Cue track seven of Frank Sinatra’s 1957 album Only the Lonely and you can hear Ol’ Blue Eyes pretending to…
With glee to the silvery sea
Before Beeching’s cuts, hordes of British holiday-makers rushed by train to the coast every summer – from ‘bracing’ Scarborough to the ‘Devon Rivera’
Will Labour’s rail replacement service leave travellers stranded?
By spooky coincidence, on Saturday night I watched an old episode of Slow Horses in which a passenger died mysteriously…
How Berlin nearly broke Bowie
This week’s Archive on 4 is a treat for David Bowie fans. Francis Whately, the producer behind several of the…
Save our steam engines!
Last week, if you’d known what to listen for, you might have heard a chorus of miniature whistles in gardens…
A gripping podcast about America’s obsession with guns
The love affair between so many Americans and their guns – long a source of international fascination – appears to…
Are we asking the wrong questions about HS2?
I am not sure there was much else Rishi could have done to salvage HS2. But I come bearing good…
The lesson of Looney: every board should prepare for scandal
Bernard Looney, the fallen BP chief, always had a certain swagger about him. I’ve no idea whether he was unsafe…
Stop HS2 – I want to get off
I have two suggestions for HS2. Either stop it or make it stop. The spiralling cost and delays are reason enough…
Across Europe by train
I found Jean-Pierre standing at a half-open window gulping down lungfuls of stale Dutch air as our night train chuntered,…
Never mind the Bank’s mandate, clear out its board of directors
Liz Truss says she intends to review the Bank of England’s mandate, which has been fixed as a 2 per…
The authoritarianism of British Transport Police
When our freedoms are being taken away we are like the proverbial frog boiled alive in water where the temperature…
The Spectator’s Notes
If anyone was suitable to be the Prime Minister’s adviser on ministerial interests, it was Lord Geidt. Self-effacing, professional, unself-righteous…
The utter shamelessness of Britain’s rail unions
In what other industry could demand collapse by a tenth and yet the staff still think that they have a…
Women-only train carriages help no one
Sooner or later, somewhere in the UK, we’ll have trains with women-only coaches. It’s an idea which keeps rolling around,…
Women-only carriages are a bonkers idea
Here we go again. Another suggestion, this time by the SNP transport minister, Jenny Gilruth, to introduce women-only carriages on…
Tea with the WI offers lessons on responsible investment
Late-breaking exam results: many of the City’s top fund managers have failed a vital test of ‘stewardship’ — defined for…
Letters
Misplaced Trust Sir: Charles Moore is as ever bang on target (The Spectator’s Notes, 26 September). National Trust members have…
Barometer
It’s electrifying! Who invented the circuit-breaker? Thomas Edison patented it in 1879, realising what damage could be caused to electrical…
Covid has ended the rail franchise fiasco at last
Good riddance to the passenger rail franchise system which has finally been killed off by Covid, though a majority of…
Letters
It’s not about money Sir: Professor Tombs criticises Alex Massie (Letters, 22 August) for ignoring evidence when the latter claims…
