© 2021 Michael Wenn Williams. Cookie Policy.
BRITAIN’S celebrated High Speed Trains bowed out this week on the last stretch of railway on which they could show their paces – the Midland Main Line from St Pancras to Sheffield. Sleek, elegant and still modern-looking, despite being 45 […]
ONE OF the legacies of the Beeching closures in the 1960s has been a wonderful inheritance of old railway bridges, tunnels and trackbeds which have melded into the landscape and are often used by cyclists, walkers and other rural […]
I share every sentiment of this excellent piece by my former colleague at the Independent and Sunday Times, Chris Blackhurst: “THIS may come across as a cliché but it’s true: I became a journalist because I watched a film about a couple […]
WONDERFUL news that daily rail services are to restart between Okehampton and Exeter in Devon for the first time in nearly 50 years. December has been pencilled in for the resumption of regular passenger services on the 14 mile […]
It will be one of the grandest pieces of railway architecture since the Victorian age – a brand new bridge longer than the famous Forth Bridge, built in the heroic tradition of Stephenson and Brunel. The bridge, which will carry […]
YOU may think of it as the place where London’s police force first originated in 1749 or the famous orange location on the Monopoly board. But the new Bow Street station which opened this week is nowhere near the bright […]
Nicknamed the Nodding Donkeys, because of their rough riding on the track, the last Pacer trains in northern England made their final journey last Friday November 27, on a service from Kirkby in Lancashire to Manchester Victoria. Built as stopgap […]
ENJOYED breakfast with Michael Portillo at the Great Northern Hotel at King’s Cross filming an episode for the new series of Great British Railway Journeys for the BBC. We were talking about the Golden Age of rail travel in the […]
A QUARTER of a century after rail privatisation began, the UK’s system of train operating franchises has run out of steam – with the government making “the first step in bringing Britain’s fragmented network back together.” The move, announced […]
TWO studies into the spread of COVID-19 on railways have found that the chance of contracting the disease by travelling on a train is extremely low, according to a report in Rail magazine The RSSB (formerly the Rail Safety and […]
Travelling along London’s Hampstead Road towards Euston today and looking at the devastation brought about by the demolition of surrounding buildings for HS2 prompts once again the thought: Will it ever be needed? Coronavirus has changed the way […]
The public are being urged by ministers to buy a newspaper to help save an industry that is being strangled by the coronavirus epidemic. The lockdown means circulations have been dramatically cut with a huge loss of advertising as businesses […]
ONCE, on a luxury train journey from Venice to London, I sat in the dining car alongside a couple who looked very grumpy indeed. She was pouting. He was in a sulk. It couldn’t have been the menu – which […]
TODAY is the dawn of a new age of the railway as Boris Johnson gives the go-ahead for HS2 as well as new tracks across the Pennines. At last we have a vision in the spirit of Stephenson and […]
CAN there be a time warp like this anywhere on the British railway system? Elderly Tube trains dating from 1938 trundle between Ryde and Shanklin in the Isle of Wight as they have done for the past 30 years. It […]
WHEN I’m asked about the greatest train journeys in the world I always recommend the Caledonian Sleeper, the train that runs from London’s Euston to the West Highlands of Scotland. Like all the best journeys, this is totally transformative, taking […]
Here’s a quiz question. What type of train emits steam and water but is not a steam engine? Answer: it’s a hydrogen train – the first generation of which are planned for Britain’s railways, using converted former commuter trains from […]
IT’S 50 years ago this month that steam locomotives last ran in regular service on the main lines of British Railways. For me these were days filled with nostalgia as I spent my gap year of 1967-68 travelling the […]
‘Northern Fail’, ‘Network Fail’ – and everyone else seems to be failing in this latest debacle on the railways where the new May timetables have led to thousands of cancellations across the country, mostly on Northern Rail and Govia Thameslink. […]
Once upon a time, one of the most romantic sights on the railways was a glamorous locomotive at the head of a train, waiting to whisk its passengers off to some far-off destination. Gleaming paintwork, polished brass, often an evocative […]
I hardly thought I would ever say this, but Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell may be onto something when they say they want to bring the railways back into national ownership. There’s certainly a public appetite after the long-running guards’ […]
I’VE just read quite the most charming and delightful book about trains that’s crossed my desk for ages. It’s a celebration of Britain’s narrow gauge railways along whose tracks author Chris Arnot has taken a highly entertaining national odyssey. These […]
A NICE review sent by email today from a reader Malcolm Margerison: Quite by chance, I recently picked up your book “The Trains Now Departed” in the local library. I say “by chance”, because I happened to catch sight of it […]
A WONDERFUL day at a reunion of old colleagues from the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo, where I started my career in journalism back in 1971 before I went on to The Times in London and spent many ensuing years […]
IT MAY seem grim for the regional print press at the moment – the latest audited circulation figures show a drop of more than 11 per cent in a year. And the plight of local papers even features in the […]
WONDERFUL to see steam on timetabled services on the Settle and Carlisle line this week. For the first time in half a century it’s been possible to buy a ticket on National Rail and travel behind a steam locomotive on […]
UNDER the heading “Rip-off rail fares scrapped” The Times reports that “thousands of expensive long-distance fares” are to be axed from the National Rail database to ensure travellers get a cheaper deal”. But will they? The train companies’ are […]
SPOTTED in W. H. Smith’s new bookshop at Euston station (handily next to Paul Theroux!) the paperback edition of The Trains Now Departed…all ready to while away a New Year train journey. so if you’re stuck on the Southern […]
JUST returned from a trip sampling some of the finest heritage steam in Yorkshire – aboard the magical trains of the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and the North Yorkshire Moors Railway. It’s half-term and the services are packed […]
My article on Germany’s Harz Railway, from Telegraph Travel, September 3 2016: IMAGINE you could create your ultimate fantasy train set. For me (and I suspect possibly you) it would be a network of quaint branch lines passing through […]
HERE’s me filming for BBC TV’s new series Trainspotting Live, beginning next week (July 11). I’m with the presenter Tim Dunn after we travelled along the New North line out of Paddington to West Ruislip. And here’s a splendid […]
I BEGAN to feel spooked when the booking clerk was reluctant to sell me a ticket. “A day return to Goole on the direct line, please?” I ask at Leeds station, the second busiest on the network outside London. […]
Here’s what it says: Wonderfully evocative … You cannot fail to be swept up in the romance of it all as the men and women who created, operated and travelled on theses since departed trains are brought back to life […]
My article on the joys of transpottinging fro the latest edition of Steam Tube; I HAVE a confession to make. It’s shaming, embarrassing and something no grown man wants the world to know about him. In the galaxy of public […]
A WONDERFUL canter through the Surrey Hills last night behind the Flying Scotsman, nattering over a five course dinner in the Pullman car with Steam Dreams owner Marcus Robertson. Even though I have travelled scores of times behind this locomotive, […]
“I HAVE seldom heard a train go by and not wished I was on it,” said the travel writer Paul Theroux famously, and it seems that more of us than ever concur with him. Trains are the most agreeable, […]
HONOURED, as a mere scribe, to have been invited to give a talk tonight in the hallowed Institution of Civil Engineers at Westminster, with the shades of Stephenson, Brunel and Telford looking on. Think the audience enjoyed it – I […]
DELIGHTED to have been invited today by the great, great, great niece of Edwin Horne – architect of the charming Camden Road station on the North London Railway –to the unveiling of a plaque in his honour. (I had written […]
IT WAS at the heart of my professional life. The closure of The Independent print edition today does not just leave an aching gap for me – I worked there as a senior editor for nearly 14 years. But it […]
I’m delighted to have been appointed a judge for this year’s Regional Press Awards. At a time when the press is under pressure as never before, it’s always a delight to read the entries for these awards – always full […]
TRAGIC news this week that the Independent and Independent on Sunday are to stop printing. I spent 14 years working for both – first as executive editor of the Indy, and then as deputy editor of the Sindy. The closures […]
A READER of ‘The Trains Now Departed’ – Keith Baker – has sent me the following delightful memoir of Laurie Earl – famous driver of the crack Euston to Scotland trains: ‘I have recently read this book, and found it […]
IF you get a chance, catch up with my episode of ‘Combat Trains’ on the H2 History Channel tonight. There will undoubtedly be frequent repeats – it shows on Virgin, Sky and BT .
How Britain’s railways won the war. I’m helping narrate the History Channel series Combat Trains this Thursday January 28 at 8.30pm talking about the vital role of the railways on the Home Front. I’d be delighted if you’d join me […]
From the group’s latest Winter Bulletin The 2015 AGM This year’s AGM was held in the Georgian Room in Kendal Town Hall. Filled with an appreciative audience it showed that you don’t have to offer crisis and bad news […]
IT WAS the war wound that prevented me getting on with my grandfather. Too late to regret it now but perhaps, a century after he received the blow that crippled him, I can at least attempt to piece together the events […]
GREAT to see the mighty Flying Scotsman back on the rails today after her many tribulations. Let’s hope that the skilled engineers appointed by the National Railway Museum have exorcised what many have long regarded as the “Curse of the […]
I RECEIVED this letter from a reader of ‘The Trains Now Departed’ at the New Year. It expresses such a lovely sentiment, I thoughtI would share it: Dear Mr Williams, I have just finished reading “The Trains Now Departed” and […]
WITH just a week to go to Christmas, my latest book is No. 2 in the Amazon charts
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