Michael Williams:
author & journalist

Michael is a journalist, academic and author – writing, blogging and broadcasting on railways and the media. He is also a travel writer, having covered the world for a variety of publications. Read more…

The Trains
Now Departed

Michael Williams’s most recent book The Trains Now Departed: Sixteen excursions into the lost delights of Britain’s railways is published by Arrow Books. Find out more about Michael’s other books, including ‘On the Slow Train’, ‘On the Slow Train Again’ and ‘Steaming to Victory’.

The miserable fiasco of Britain’s railways

March 2, 2025

TODAY rail passengers face the misery of an above-inflation fare rise of 4.6 per cent. As if this weren’t bad enough, it comes against the background of some of the worst train performance for years, with the system bedevilled by lateness, strikes and cancellations. Not to mention a byzantine fares structure that few can understand. This weekend The Times reports that a miserable average of 544 trains are being cancelled every weekend with figure rising to 10 per cent on […]

MICHAEL'S BOOKS