Trains

How Berlin nearly broke Bowie

14 September 2024 9:00 am

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!

31 August 2024 9:00 am

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

11 May 2024 9:00 am

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?

21 October 2023 9:00 am

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

23 September 2023 9:00 am

Bernard Looney, the fallen BP chief, always had a certain swagger about him. I’ve no idea whether he was unsafe…

Just stop HS2!

12 August 2023 9:00 am

I have two suggestions for HS2. Either stop it or make it stop. The spiralling cost and delays are reason enough…

You think British trains are bad? Try German ones

5 August 2023 9:00 am

I found Jean-Pierre standing at a half-open window gulping down lungfuls of stale Dutch air as our night train chuntered,…

Train robberies

5 August 2023 9:00 am

Backstabbers

1 July 2023 9:00 am

It’s time to clear out the Bank of England’s board

27 August 2022 9:00 am

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

4 August 2022 1:58 am

When our freedoms are being taken away we are like the proverbial frog boiled alive in water where the temperature…

Who monitors the moralists?

25 June 2022 9:00 am

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

8 June 2022 10:00 pm

In what other industry could demand collapse by a tenth and yet the staff still think that they have a…

Women-only train carriages insult us all

26 February 2022 9:00 am

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

11 February 2022 12:01 am

Here we go again. Another suggestion, this time by the SNP transport minister, Jenny Gilruth, to introduce women-only carriages on…

What tea with the WI taught me about responsible investment

11 September 2021 9:00 am

Late-breaking exam results: many of the City’s top fund managers have failed a vital test of ‘stewardship’ — defined for…

Letters: The sorry state of BBC sport

10 October 2020 9:00 am

Misplaced Trust Sir: Charles Moore is as ever bang on target (The Spectator’s Notes, 26 September). National Trust members have…

Whose bright idea was the circuit-breaker?

26 September 2020 9:00 am

It’s electrifying! Who invented the circuit-breaker? Thomas Edison patented it in 1879, realising what damage could be caused to electrical…

The end of the line for the rail franchise fiasco

26 September 2020 9:00 am

Good riddance to the passenger rail franchise system which has finally been killed off by Covid, though a majority of…

Letters: Why do we need beavers?

29 August 2020 9:00 am

It’s not about money Sir: Professor Tombs criticises Alex Massie (Letters, 22 August) for ignoring evidence when the latter claims…

The joy of commuting

29 August 2020 9:00 am

My train journey to work is bliss

The great train robbery: why Britain’s rail prices need a rethink

24 January 2020 10:00 pm

Outside mathematics, the word ‘commute’ can mean two things. Mostly it refers to the act of making a daily journey…

Don’t tell me model railways aren’t art. My little engine is a thing of spirit and beauty

14 December 2019 9:00 am

It’s a summer day at Llangenydd station, and the afternoon train is already late, not that anyone seems to mind.…

The financial logic behind HS2 is collapsing. It’s time to pull the plug

9 February 2019 9:00 am

No one is in any doubt about the problem facing Britain’s railways. Over the past decade, rail fares have risen…