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On the Wrong Line : How Ideology and Incompetence Wrecked Britain's Railways
Britain's rail privatisation was one of the greatest political failures of recent history. A well-functioning industry was torn apart to satisfy political dogma and privatised in a way that not only compromised safety and wrecked performance but also resulted in financial melt-down.
In this acclaimed book, an update to his earlier work Broken Rails, Christian Wolmar revealed the causes of the collapse of the railway system, following the Hatfield accident, barely five years after John Major's ill-thought-out privatisation.
On the Wrong Line goes on to expose the failure of New Labour to get to grips with the legacy it inherited from the Tories and raised wider issues about the competence of the Blair government and the Department for Transport.
Wolmar argues that only a new approach will create the railway Britain needs. He makes a persuasive case for a return to a rational railway in which the disparate pieces created by the Tories’ privatisation are reassembled into a functioning network.
This book, with a new preface for the Kindle edition, serves as a valuable reminder of the risks of privatising a single, state-owned service and splitting it into many competing entities, each linked by contracts rather than a shared service ethos.
Unfortunately, this lesson does not appear to have been learned by the Coalition Government, which first let the West Coast Main Line franchise process collapse into farce and now seems dedicated to destroying first the National Health Service the way the Tories wrecked the railways, and then doing the same to education.
Finally, in a new appendix, this edition contains a never-before-published three page statement written by Sir John Major on the privatisation of the railways; a subject he never mentions once in his autobiography.
On The Wong line is the book to read if you've ever
"This book can be recommended to anyone who wishes to understand the bewildering and often scurrilous way in which critical national transport policy is developed. You will not be disappointed" - Trevor Whelan, CILT
In this acclaimed book, an update to his earlier work Broken Rails, Christian Wolmar revealed the causes of the collapse of the railway system, following the Hatfield accident, barely five years after John Major's ill-thought-out privatisation.
On the Wrong Line goes on to expose the failure of New Labour to get to grips with the legacy it inherited from the Tories and raised wider issues about the competence of the Blair government and the Department for Transport.
Wolmar argues that only a new approach will create the railway Britain needs. He makes a persuasive case for a return to a rational railway in which the disparate pieces created by the Tories’ privatisation are reassembled into a functioning network.
This book, with a new preface for the Kindle edition, serves as a valuable reminder of the risks of privatising a single, state-owned service and splitting it into many competing entities, each linked by contracts rather than a shared service ethos.
Unfortunately, this lesson does not appear to have been learned by the Coalition Government, which first let the West Coast Main Line franchise process collapse into farce and now seems dedicated to destroying first the National Health Service the way the Tories wrecked the railways, and then doing the same to education.
Finally, in a new appendix, this edition contains a never-before-published three page statement written by Sir John Major on the privatisation of the railways; a subject he never mentions once in his autobiography.
On The Wong line is the book to read if you've ever
"This book can be recommended to anyone who wishes to understand the bewildering and often scurrilous way in which critical national transport policy is developed. You will not be disappointed" - Trevor Whelan, CILT
Paperback
First published September 5, 2005
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About the author
Christian Wolmar
48 books83 followersChristian Wolmar is a journalist, focusing on the history and politics of railways.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 21, 2007
Not a book for everyone, but if you want to know why Britain's railways are in the state they are and why there are some things that just shouldn't have been privatised, CW is yer man. Highly technical in several places (it is hard to explain several of the accidents that resulted from the rail sell-off otherwise) I heartily recommend it for those victims of First, National Express, Stagecoach et al.
November 21, 2013
Clear presentation of the privatisation of British Rail and the early history of the privatised railway (the book stops around 2005/06). The complex issues are well handled and it is an interesting read if you travel on the UK's railways or are a UK taxpayer.
October 11, 2024
Having read Christian Wolmar's overall history of British Rail, this is a really interesting deep dive into the privatisation process, the accidents that followed and why infrastructure now costs so much to build. It is not an attempt to put a balanced case but it is very interesting – I would love to read an update in the GBR era!
June 12, 2016
The privatisation of the railways ranks amongst the greatest acts of political vandalism that the United Kingdom has ever known. Christian Wolmar's book identifies and highlights the events and decisions that made the move from a nationalised and publicly accountable, though admittedly flawed railway to the unwieldy privatised mess that we have today, with a great deal of clarity and focus. By framing the failures of John Major's government's crazed, flawed and nonsensical attempt at taking the public sector - and ostensibly, the tax payer - out of the running of what is fundamentally a rigid, complexly integrated system, against the terrible accidents of the late 1990s and early 2000s (namely Southall, Ladbroke Grove and Hatfield in particular), Wolmar argues that the privatisation of the railways has actually delivered very few of the benefits promised by successive governments, and resulted in a fragmented railway that is neither safer, more reliable or cheaper in real terms than British Rail before it.
Wolmar puts across his points in a detailed and clear way that is easy to understand, and quite entertaining at times, from a non-technical layman point-of-view, which makes the rather depressing narrative of the failure of privatisation all the more understandably scandalous. While it would be remiss to say that all the problems of the British rail network was down to privatisation, Wolmar's arguments are such to suggest that many of the problems are down to the unnecessary fragmentation that came with the privatisation exercise, and from the cost-cutting that invariable comes from companies running a service for profit. This book is a great manual for those who are passionate about the re-nationalisation - or re-organisation - of the railways, and a must-read for anybody interested in either the railways as they are today, and those merely interested in the ludicrousness of the decision making of the powerful.
Wolmar puts across his points in a detailed and clear way that is easy to understand, and quite entertaining at times, from a non-technical layman point-of-view, which makes the rather depressing narrative of the failure of privatisation all the more understandably scandalous. While it would be remiss to say that all the problems of the British rail network was down to privatisation, Wolmar's arguments are such to suggest that many of the problems are down to the unnecessary fragmentation that came with the privatisation exercise, and from the cost-cutting that invariable comes from companies running a service for profit. This book is a great manual for those who are passionate about the re-nationalisation - or re-organisation - of the railways, and a must-read for anybody interested in either the railways as they are today, and those merely interested in the ludicrousness of the decision making of the powerful.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews