Christian Tage Forter Wolmar (born 3 August 1949) is a British journalist, author, railway historian and Labour Party politician. He is known for his commentary on transport, especially as a pundit on Britain's railway industry, and was named Transport Journalist of the Year in the National Transport Awards in 2007. He is an advocate for cycling, and is on the board of the London Cycling Campaign as well as having founded Labour Cycles, which encourages the Labour Party to adopt a pro-cycling agenda. Early life and education Wolmar's father, Boris Forter, was born in Moscow and his mother, Birgit Lindblom, was Swedish. They met in London. Wolmar was educated at Lycée Français Charles de Gaulle, a French state-owned school in South Kensington, followed by the University of Warwick where he obtained a degree in economics and was editor of the student newspaper, Campus. He then squatted at Villa Road in London, helping to save the street from demolition, and co-edited the book Squatting the real story. Life and career Following his graduation from university in 1971, Wolmar worked for Marketing, Retail Newsagent, the New Statesman, and the London Daily News. In 1976, Wolmar joined the staff of drug users' charity Release, and stopped the use of its office (1 Elgin Avenue, London W9) as a holding address for the PIE, a paedophile activist group. He was on the staff of The Independent (1989–97) and their transport correspondent for four years from 1992, covering the privatisation of British Rail by the Major government. He also contributed to The Observer and continues to write a regular column for RAIL magazine and contributes frequently to several other magazines. His website has over 1,400 articles. Wolmar's books and columns mainly analyse the current state of the British railway industry and also cover railway history. He has long been an ardent critic of rail privatisation and argued that the structure contributed to the series of railway disasters in 1997–2001. He is opposed to the construction of HS2, the planned high-speed railway linking London, Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester. He frequently appears on TV and radio, both on history and news programmes, and has a regular spot as a commentator on Talk Radio. He speaks at transport conferences around the world, both on the railways and on his concerns about driverless cars. Books Wolmar's railway history books include The Subterranean Railway: a history of the London Underground,