200 Years of Railways
A talk to Reading u3a by transport expert Christian Wolmar
2025 is the bicentenary of rail travel in Britain, and with the birth of the modern railway the history of Britain –not least Reading – changed for ever. A good time to reflect on the railways’ enormous impact.
Who better to guide us through these 200 years than Christian Wolmar, author of a series of books on railway history and a writer and broadcaster specialising in transport matters. He has spent nearly all of his working life as a journalist – writing for most of our national newspapers as well as magazines such as The Oldie and the Spectator. Among his numerous feature TV appearances, he has been on Coast, Julia Bradbury’s Railway Walks, BBC4’s ‘Railways: the Making of a Nation’ and the railway programmes presented by Ian Hislop and Michael Portillo.
For Reading u3a this is a welcome return visit by this popular speaker and railway expert. Non-members are welcome and entry is free – join us at 2pm on Monday 28 April at Abbey Baptist Church, Reading RG1 3BE. See www.readingu3a.org.uk.