British Rail wasn’t how we’re asked to remember it . . .

From ancient rolling stock to patchy service, stale sandwiches to the wrong kind of snow, British Rail – our last great state-owned organisation to be privatised – has received a terrible press.

But after its controversial 1948 creation, British Rail was actually an innovative powerhouse that over five decades transformed the UK, creating one of the fastest regular rail services in the world.

Award-winning journalist Christian Wolmar takes us from promise to punchline, exploring British Rail’s birth into post-war austerity, the many battles and struggles to evolve what many considered to be a dinosaur, and how, at the height of its success, the service was misunderstood and unfairly maligned, ruthlessly broken up and privatised.