Christian Wolmar

Wolmar was selected as the Labour candidate to contest the Richmond Park constituency in the 2016 by-election and ran on a strongly Remain platform.

In June 2015, after cycling over 2,000 miles and speaking at over 100 events, Wolmar won six Constituency Labour Party nominations, and went through to the final shortlist of the London Labour Party mayoral selection process. Described by The Londonist as "the non-politician who wants to be mayor", Wolmar spoke at the five official hustings about his campaign vision for a more affordable, liveable and sustainable London. The campaign convinced the eventual winner, Sadiq Khan, to push for the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street and to introduce the 'Hopper' fare.

In September 2012, Wolmar announced his intention to seek nomination for the Labour candidacy at the 2016 Mayor of London elections. The WolmarforLondon campaign launched in 2013 with Wolmar chairing a panel on "One London" with Nick Raynsford, then MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, Simon Birkett, Founder and Director of Clean Air in London, Vidhya Alakeson, Deputy Director of the Resolution foundation and Cllr Lise Thorsen, Lead Cllr on Sustainability on Copenhagen City Council. He held a second conference in June 2014, at The Exchange. Speakers included Neal Lawson, Chair of Compass and Professor Tony Travers LSE. Later he took part in the Labour Party Mayoral hustings at Manchester in September 2014 and unveiled plans to pedestrianise Oxford Street with boosts to business and the environment. Described by The Guardian as "the most extensive grass roots campaign", one poll put Wolmar in second place, with policies called Lifeblood for London, Putting a Roof over our Heads, Caring for the Capital's Well-Being and Hungry for Change. Wolmar jokingly encouraged newspapers to print an untrue rumour that he had been press officer for a Maoist slavery cult, saying, tongue-in-cheek, that it would be highly beneficial for his campaign financing.

Wolmar's railway history books include The Subterranean Railway: a history of the London Underground, published in 2005, and Fire and Steam, the first major new history of the railways in Britain for 30 years. More recently, Blood, Iron and Gold, a history of how the railways changed the world, was published in October 2009 and Engines Of War, on how the railways transformed modern warfare was published in late 2010. In 2012, he published The Great Railway Revolution on the history of the US railroads, and also in 2012 an ebook version of On the Wrong Line: How Ideology and Incompetence Wrecked Britain's Railways, an updated version of the earlier Broken Rails. In 2013, he published To the Edge of the World, a history of the Transsiberian railway. Subsequent rail books include Railways and the Raj, a history of Indian railways and The Story of Crossrail. He has also written two polemics: Are Trams Socialist? describes how Britain's transport policies have always been orientated towards favouring the motor car over public transport and Driverless Cars: on a road to nowhere suggests that the hype around this technology is greatly exaggerated.

He has also written a book on the abuse scandals in children's homes, Forgotten Children, published in 2000, and has written extensively about housing issues and local government.

Wolmar's books and columns mainly analyse the current state of the British railway industry and also cover railway history. He is a critic of rail privatisation and argued that the structure contributed to the series of railway disasters in 1997–2001.

He was on the staff of The Independent (1989–97) and their transport correspondent for four years from 1992, covering the privatisation of British Rail by the Major government. “Wolmar is one of the crotchety sort of railway lovers for whom nothing is quite as good as it used to be and the system is now run by idiots.” He also contributed to The Observer and continues to write a regular column for RAIL magazine and contributes frequently to several other magazines. His website has over 1,400 articles.

Following his graduation from university in 1971, Wolmar worked for Marketing, Retail Newsagent, the New Statesman, and the London Daily News. In 1976, Wolmar joined the staff of drug users' charity Release, and stopped the use of its office (1 Elgin Evenue, London W9) as a holding address for the PIE, a paedophile activist group.

Christian Wolmar was born on August 3, 1949 in Hampstead, London, England.