Book Review
and network size is: who should determine the kind of railway to be retained and developed? Faulkner and Austin provide us with a useful guide to the anomalies and inconsistencies that have characterised policy since the Second World War. They show how for much of the period, the government was unwilling to specify the size and shape of the railway it wished to support, preferring instead to try and set a ballpark figure for subsidy, and let the operators respond to it. They might have made more of Bob Reid’s more transparent contract with the Thatcher governments in the 1980s, and the impact of franchise specification in the post- privatisation railway. Their aim was to help the present generation
of railway managers and policymakers avoid ‘the devastating mistakes of the past’. This book will certainly help them dismiss simplistic pleas for a return to British Rail.
Published in December 2012 by the Oxford Publishing Co. ISBN- 13: 978-0860936473 Dr Terry Gourvish is director of the Business History Unit, LSE, and author of several books on railways, including three commissioned by the British Railways Board and the Strategic Rail Authority. The most recent is Britain’s Railways 1997-2005: Labour’s Strategic Experiment (2008).
Mind the Gap: a London Underground miscellany
Chris Williams-Lilley, founder and managing director of Rail Champions, reviews MIND THE GAP: A London Underground Miscellany by Emily Kearns
T
he world’s longest Metro system is the Shanghai Metro in China at 434 km long. The Metro system with the most number of stations in the world is the New York City subway with 422 stations, but the
world’s first Metro, now the world’s oldest system is of course London Underground, which celebrated its 150th birthday last month.
Mind the Gap is a fresh new take on the Underground,
seen through the eyes of avid Tube enthusiast Emily Kearns. The core of the book is a miscellany of key facts, myths, and strong echoes of social change down through the decades. Kearns has painstakingly researched and documented the
growth of the Underground, from its inception to the role of the network we know today, in incredible detail, bringing some of the Tube’s characters back to life once again and providing a comprehensive historical narrative with some humour. All this combines to make a complete and entertaining reference that will satisfy the enthusiast and expert alike. Behind every great invention is a great mind and London
Underground is no exception. In the book we are reminded that it took several progressive thinkers and innovative designers to produce the service we know and (generally) love today. The very notion that trains could roam underneath the streets of London was imagined by visionary Charles Pearson (1793-1862). Not forgetting Frank Pick (1878-1941), who was able to shape the Underground’s corporate identity, setting the tone of the future by introducing the now famous roundel to display the station name clearly, and bring the entire network under one brand. The general style of the author is clear, concise and factual. She succeeds in presenting the stations as not just a building or meeting place - but as living breathing entity, with captivating stories of shelter during wartime, a store for invaluable treasures, and even a refuge for Winston Churchill who used one particular secret location as a secret base from which to hold cabinet meetings, claiming it was the only place in London he could get a good night’s sleep far away from the sound of bombs overhead. The book gives a fantastic insight into abandoned stations
(so-called ghost stations), which can often be spotted on street corners or from train windows. These were failures perhaps due to planning errors or general lack of use. Some are now used as film locations and others just simply forgotten and left to rot. Looking to the future, there are plans to increase efficiency and introduce new rolling stock, but with more than 1 billion passengers using the Underground in 2012, one could argue that London has outgrown its subterranean railway (hence the need for Crossrail). However, the Victorians built an astonishing network of underground tunnels, revolutionising transport and promoting the growth of the capital. We owe them a great debt.
Page 30 March 2013 Emily Kearns found that the capital’s Underground network
not only offered a sense of freedom, but its history provided a wealth of untold stories and hidden stations ripe for discovery. She deserves thanks and praise for her contribution to what is the world’s best underground system. If you are wondering which station Winston Churchill favoured to rest his weary head, then I suggest you buy the book.
Published in 2013 by Summersdale Publishers. ISBN: 978 1 84953 357 7
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