Author name: Michael Williams

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 trains in the 1980s, and initially constructed from Leyland bus parts, they were hated by […]

  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 by transport secretary Grant Shapps, comes as the government extended its programme of emergency payments

    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 we all work and by the time the line opens, with perhaps £100bn spent, we

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 have scaled down or shut. Journalists are being laid off and papers closing. The regional

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 you from the hustle and bustle of the Euston Road to the beauty and tranquility

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 Essex. The stock is being developed by Alstom with the leasing company Eversholt Rail and

  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 country on railrovers trying to ride behind the last remnants of steam before it disappeared.

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 name, the locos and their numbers were often legendary, such as Mallard and No. 4472,

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’ fiasco on Southern and Stagecoach and Virgin getting their sums wrong on the East Coast

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 little railways, most of which are run today by preservationists, were often originally built to

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 on a trolley of returned books waiting to be put back on the appropriate shelves;

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 in the national press.  More than sixty people came along from the 1960s to 1990s.

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 current storyline of the hit TV series Broadchurch, where the local newspaper is facing closure,

  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 planning lower prices for long-distance journeys where passengers change trains along the route. Currently it

  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 or diverted on Virgin here’s a book that will be the perfect companion for your

  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 some remote, timeless and beautiful landscape. The little wayside stations would be immaculate and the

  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 set of GWR lower quadrant signals we spotted along the way…    

  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. “It’s the stopping train,” I explain, trying to be helpful when his gaze goes frosty.

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 by Williams’ magical prose.’

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, she has always had a special personal resonance for me, her journeys and perambulations running

  “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, comfortable and relaxing of any form of long distance travel. Whether you are seeking spectacular

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 certainly did!

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 about him in my book On the Slow Train.) Here is Jann Burrows with Sir

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 is such a loss for the British cultural arena. We shall not see the like

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 of vigour and offering great hope for the future…