HS2 and RAIL Magazine

[irish_rail]

Flicking through the latest edition of Rail, I noticed that HS2 dominates nearly a third of pages of the magazine.

Is it really justifiable to devote about 30 percent of a magazines pages to one issue that hasnt even started to be built yet?

I understand people are interested, but surely one page per issue giving us INFORMATION, as opposed to the usual drivel recycled over and over about how great HS2 is, would surely suffice.

I understand the Editor has a vested interest in HS2 , but please give us a break from it, as those of us actaully working in the railway industry miss Rail being an informative publication about relevant day to day news.

Rant over....

 

[Monty]

Rail Magazine, informative?

Though I have to say I find Christian Wolmar just as annoying with his 'anti HS2' rants as does Nigel Harris with his Pro HS2 bias. So that 1/3 for, 1/3 against leaving a final 1/3 for advertisements.

 

[sheff'd victoria]

I have to agree with irish rail on this one, I bought RAIL this morning and there is far to much about HS2, god knows how much coverage it will get when they start building the thing

On the plus side Gainsborough Central got a mention on page 28

 

[irish_rail]

I wouldnt even mind if it was new information, about say the line of route, but Harris tends to be obsessed with "name dropping" , constantly referring to which big-wig is now in charge of which part of the project....

WHO CARES!

 

[scotraildriver]

The feature on the Highland Chieftain is plagued with spelling gaffs and inaccurancies too. A poor magazine this month!

 

[AE]

The editor of a magazine can put whatever they like into their own magazine as long as they think that it's relevant. The magazine is called "RAIL" after all and HS2 is a very important proposed new rail line. I don't see any problem in having a lot of content related to HS2 in "RAIL". In fact, I would be surprised if they didn't.

As for the information being recycled, you have to remember that not all buyers of the magazine buy each issue, or have a subscription. In fact, some people might be buying this issue for the first time.


Don't forget that this is a magazine. It doesn't have to have any kind of balance. If the editor wants to lead a campaign on a particular issue they have every right to.

If you don't like "RAIL" don't read it.

 

[gordonthemoron]

If it doesn't increase or at least maintain readership, I doubt it would continue. I agree with AE, if you don't like it, don't read it

 

[Aldaniti]

RAIL is obsessed with HS2 and petty point scoring to the point where its lost the balance of objective vision required for reporting on the industry as a whole. Its been like this for a while, I usually flick through it but rarely buy it. Personally, I find Today's Railways far better.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Personally, I find Today's Railways far better.

This, absolutely. RAIL a few years ago I think went very business-orientated and started to shift away from its more traditional scene. That wasn't too bad but since HS2 has been in full swing it has been almost unreadable some weeks - you have 20 pages on it in the News pages and everything else has to squeeze into 10. You then get 10-page features every other week on some aspect of it too. Nowadays I might have a quick flick through in WH Smith but the days of me being able to sit down and read it cover to cover (like I still do with Today's Railways and BLN, and to a lesser extent Modern Railways) are long gone. Today's Railways UK in my opinion is by quite a distance the best all-round UK railway mag.

 

[WatcherZero]

To be honest all the rail mags turn to pre-written features and historical retrospectives as it approaches Christmas as the news drys up and staff go on holiday. All the juicy 'news' tends to occur in Spring and just after the Parliament summer recess.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

HS2 is such an uninteresting matter that is has only gathered 5883 posts on its thread on this site...

The legal process for HS2 is actually rather important, and there were significant events in the last couple of weeks.
But we could do with less "campaigning", something Nigel Harris objects to in other media.

Modern Railways is for me the journal of record, which I keep for reference.
By contrast I throw one issue of RAIL away as soon as the next one comes out. It is just not thorough enough to keep.
Their "Industry Insider" is particularly feeble, and even Barry Doe has lost his sparkle.
Yet again its cover sports an annoying and superfluous exclamation mark.
It does some good articles on infrastructure though (signalling etc).
The title is owned by Bauer, which is German.

 

[irish_rail]

In my opinion,

Modern Railways - too infrastructure / engineering orientated

Todays Railways - totally obssessed with the North of England, Sheffield, Manchester ETC.

Rail Express - too heritage orientated and irritatingly superfurlous picture captions.

This is why I feel stuck with Rail. IMHO I cannot see many of these titles , except perhaps MR being around in ten years time....

 

[YorkshireBear]

MR for me as i am an engineer (ish) :P

 

[Oswyntail]

The feature on the Highland Chieftain is plagued with spelling gaffs and inaccurancies too. A poor magazine this month!

Oh the irony!

The debate on HS2 is quite critical to all rail in the UK. The arguments that suggest that the money should be spent on road building, or high-speed broadband, if allowed to go unanswered, could well be turned on other parts of the rail budget, whether or not HS2 goes ahead. As so often in this country at the moment, critics of the project are given almost unlimited publicity, and there seems to be little concerted response.

 

[Squaddie]

The feature on the Highland Chieftain is plagued with spelling gaffs and inaccurancies too. A poor magazine this month!

I think that should be gaffes and inaccuracies.

 

[krus_aragon]

I think that should be gaffes and inaccuracies.

Not in my gaff, it isn't.

 

[NeilWatson]

The feature on the Highland Chieftain is plagued with spelling gaffs and inaccurancies too. A poor magazine this month!

The gaffs should hook the readers though (or keep them in trim......)

 

[43074]

I would agree that RAIL has moved towards away from enthusiast coverage, and invariably too much of the magazine is devoted to High Speed rail developments, so I will probably end my subscription with them at the end of the year. (not that HS2 is not important, but why do other journals manage to keep HS2 coverage to a sensible level?)

Personally, I would suggest Todays Railways UK as the best all round railway magazine with extensive all round coverage, and Modern Railways is often an interesting read, as much for reading Roger Ford's musings as it is for anything else.

I think the Railway Magazine has gone downhill as well, it's not as good as it used to be IMO.

 

[Helvellyn]

Actually if you read the HS2 stuff, and I'll admit there is a lot, Nigel Harris and his team are making some valid points about the debate. To many people the only info they have about HS2 is what is in the non-industry press, and there is a bias there against HS2.

There has been a trend recently for more historical articles in RAIL, which to me is taking it back to some extent to its roots. Being a fortnightly magazine it also prides itself on being a railway current affairs magazine more than the monthly magazines.

 

[68000]

I fail to see what the problem is, people can choose to buy it or not. What I find ridiculous are those who stand there blocking access for others whilst they read the magazines in the shop

 

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

Enjoy it while it lasts! When HS2 gets cancelled, it will be a struggle to find anything else to fill the pages...

 

[Frontera2]

Haven't read Rail for a long while, don't like the political bias

 

[MidnightFlyer]

Haven't read Rail for a long while, don't like the political bias

Out of interest, what would you consider the political bias to be? I know Christian Wolmar is a staunch Labour supporter, but I haven't got a clue what Nigel Harris is.

 

[Shaggy]

I bought a copy of the previous edition of RAIL. It was interesting enough and I enjoyed many of the pieces. However my loyalty to my subscription of "The Railway Magazine" was never seriously challenged.

The RM still remains the magazine to beat IMO.

 

[johnnychips]

I like RAIL. I like the fact that Mr Harris is violently pro HS2 but tolerates and employs Mr Wolmar who is violently against. It has news about modern railways, engineering, journey reports, fares and preservation in a pleasant, readable mix. Having said that, I'm like other posters who put it in the recycling after I've read it.

Just bought 735, so I'll be able to see if it's going OTT on HS2. But again, the antis seem to be winning the war at the moment, so a pro voice is needed. I particularly liked Mr Harris's open letter to the BBC about bias in 734.

As everybody says, you don't have to buy it if you don't want to, and I get the feeling that Mr Harris is an astute enough businessman to realise that if his stridency is putting people off, he will tone it down.

 

[Temple Meads]

I bought a copy of the previous edition of RAIL. It was interesting enough and I enjoyed many of the pieces. However my loyalty to my subscription of "The Railway Magazine" was never seriously challenged.

The RM still remains the magazine to beat IMO.

Agreed.

For me The RM has always done the best at trying to cover all bases, and as someone who in interested in most aspects of railways, that's important for me. The paper quality and photographic reproduction has been a touch poor of late though IMO.

 

[RichmondCommu]

Just bought 735, so I'll be able to see if it's going OTT on HS2. But again, the antis seem to be winning the war at the moment, so a pro voice is needed. I particularly liked Mr Harris's open letter to the BBC about bias in 734.

The battle for HS2 is unlikely to be won or lost due to the influence of a rail enthusiast’s magazine.

 

[simon.exd]

I like RAIL. I like the fact that Mr Harris is violently pro HS2 but tolerates and employs Mr Wolmar who is violently against.

Thats probably quite a healthy mix.. i dont buy newspapers because they are all heavily biased in one direction or another.. at least having two staff contributors that lean in opposite directions the reader gets two opposing outlooks..

Good point though...
I dont read Rail... too industry orientated for me.. It was good when it was called Rail Enthusiast and was monthly... but i geuss back then there were more interesting things to read about... Locomotives that werent GM, real locomotives that worked real trains, load 11 etc etc, not the crap 4 car dmus that have taken over... works and depot reports, because there eere still depots and works... Back in the days when an hour at my local station , Exeter St Davids, would mean seeing 50s on the Waterloos, 47s on cross countrys, the occasional 33 or 31, 08s in Riverside..
I no longer need to read about the things Rail choose to publish..

 

[anthony263]

The Railway Magazine and Todays Railways UK are the top two magazines I will buy from WH Smith although I do have a subscription with Modern Railways which although it is more technical is an enjoyable read

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The battle for HS2 is unlikely to be won or lost due to the influence of a rail enthusiast’s magazine.

...which is subscribed to by quite a few influential people; two copies go to the Ministerial office at the DfT for a start...