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By Michael Williams Distressed families lugging heavy suitcases, tired, bawling children shivering in the cold, confused elderly folk uncertain paralysed with panic. No, not a refugee exodus in some far-flung corner of the world, but the scenes at Finsbury Park station in north London this week after vast crowds built up when all trains to […]

Just seen the proof of the smashing design of the jacket of my new book The Trains Now Departed: sixteen excursions into the lost delights of Britain’s railways, out from Preface Publishing on May 7 2015. Can anybody guess where this scene is? http://bit.ly/1r1FrBy

The wheels of academia turn slowly, so delighted to see this first major review of our book The Future of Quality News Journalism. Professor Leigh L. Wright says: ‘A book such as this collection allows professors and students to read and learn about real-life examples and struggles news organizations face to maintain quality in an […]

I’m off next week to help the National Railway Museum set up their new exhibition on Winston Churchill’s last journey. I’m contributing some memories from my book ‘ Steaming to Victory: How Britain’s railways won the war’

Review of Rush Hour by Iain Gately (Head of Zeus, £16.99) The Independent,November 29 2014 Here are some facts you’d probably prefer not to think about as you get out of bed in the morning. Britain’s rail commuters are allocated a theoretical 0.45 metres of space each – which they rarely get in the rush […]

Do join me at the University of Central Lancashire School of Tourism for my talk on how the railways shaped our modern concept of time. And how the philosophy of time and the railways are inextricably entwined. Wednesday December 3 at 12.30pm in Room 350, Greenbank. Pictured below is Brunel’s great clock at Paddington Station […]

  Belles and Whistles, by Andrew Martin (Profile Books, £15.99) Andrew Martin is clearly not a fan of today’s trains, which he describes as a ”noisy hell of shuddering grey plastic”. This may not be surprising since his fans will know him as the creator of Jim Stringer, the railway detective – hero of his […]

I took this picture of ‘Royal Scot’ class locomotive No. 46115 ‘Scots Guardsman speeding through Kentish Town station in north London on a special train from St Pancras this Remembrance Sunday. How appropriate to see this wonderfully restored locomotive with its military associations on such a significant day. In the Blitz of 1941, this area […]