Rating: 5 out of 5
British Rail is a notorious organisation whose true scope is a joy to read in this another blockbuster from Mr Wolmar. I’ve been a fan generally of the older railway construction stories, but this was very interesting in a different line: how to build a business in the 20th century and how then to keep it going through all struggles.
Of course, what becomes abundantly clear through all of this is the role of political idealism. Both the Labour and Conservative governments are shown here to approach a topic not by its merits, but rather through the vociferous opinions of a small subset of people. Unfortunately for the railways in the UK, these people often also were ones set on dismantling the system that existed, even if this wouldn’t bring any benefits.
Taking the political developments in the intervening years since the author finished the book, it’s only clearer how the privatisation of the railways in the 1990’s was a very bad political decision. It’s only a wonder, reading this, that such things didn’t happen wholesale ten years earlier though the author also shows how and why that wasn’t the case
The decades leading up to it, however, come to life beautifully in this work, which also tells us a lot about what the average British life was like in those days: train holidays, sleeping wagons, and such.
Overall, a splendid work that any rail enthusiast should look into!
