Happy New Year!

AS this is the first issue of 2023, I would like to start by wishing all readers of The Railway Magazine a very Happy New Year. Due to the changes in our production cycle through the holiday season, I write this just before Christmas knowing that we won’t be published until early January. So, what kind of a year can we look forward to? At the time of writing, the series of strike dates across the rail industry – and beyond – were ramping up, with calls on both sides for talks and an early resolution. We can only hope this becomes the case soon, so that everyone involved in railways can refocus on the recovery from the pandemic, which is still not complete. Perhaps the railways will never be exactly the same again and maybe, for example, the shift from commuting to leisure travel will become a permanent effect. But in any case there is real danger that the current or a future Government will eventually lose patience and, faced with high levels of national debt, might see reducing subsidy of the railways as an easy win towards balancing the books. The knock-on effects could see new rail projects paused or cancelled, the much-touted ‘levelling-up’ of the North left undone, services cut, and in an extreme case maybe even some lesser-used lines closed or ‘bustituted’. Let us hope not. On a more positive note, January marks 100 years since the 1923 Grouping became official – the ‘Big Four’ description being one we created in our February 1923 issue, and so this month we look back to some of our coverage at the time. Then February will mark the 100th anniversary of Flying Scotsman entering service which, following on from our own special 125th birthday last year, is one of a series of major anniversaries this decade – each quite rightly one that deserves to be celebrated, and all being part of the rich railway heritage that we are so fortunate to enjoy.