Telegrammed by Our International Correspondent
The UK Press Gazette is the monthly trade journal of choice for phone hackers, paparazzi and those who spend a lot of time badgering the BA press office for free tickets.
Its most recent edition furnishes readers with an eight page Insider’s Briefing to transport and how to cover it.
There-in the alumni of great communicators are all arrayed; including BBC transport men Tom Edwards (London) and Paul Clifton (South and from time to time Rail Professional), Julian Rush, who dabbles in transport for Channel 4, and John Ingham who covers the beat for the Daily Express and has done so for many years.
Interesting omissions include Robert Wright of the pink 'un and Philip Pank of The Thunderer. Perhaps, lurking behind paywalls, they are a bit harder to get hold of.
Part of the briefing lists Key Publications – recommended serious reading for those writing of wheel on rail.
Featured are Transport Times, Local Transport Today, and surprisingly, plucky little Railway Magazine. The listing helpfully gives editors email and phone numbers so they can be contacted for a swift vox pop should incident or other service perturbation occur.
Surprisingly neither RAIL nor Modern Railways gets a mention.
Meanwhile Mystic Wolmar was asked by UKPG to explain the dearth of ladies covering transport. He limply explained that “trains, planes and cars are quite male subjects of interest”.
With such searing insights a golden future for Wolmar's mellifluous tones remains assured at the nation's breakfast tables.
