RailStaff Editoria

November 2nd 2009

RailStaff Editorial

Art on the rail network is important for it portrays an industry confident and at ease with itself. Great civilisations throw up cathedrals and castles, paintings and poems. Railways, with their high speed lines, great bridges and towering stations, are no exception. However this is an industry dependent on the hard work of quite ordinary people as the RailStaff Awards 2009 recognises. At first glance art on the railway may simply benefit the occasional traveller reading poems on the Underground or listening to jazz bands perform at St Pancras International. Quite often it is simply a set of murals or sculptures put up by students or a new garden planted by local station adopters. However rail industry artists and architects choreographing motion with structure now go way beyond the simple, glum, single line utilitarianism of the recent past. The new rail industry looks and sounds bolder. Moreover railway companies are increasingly sympathetic to art with a panache once deemed rare among industrialists. Whether it is the work of Kirsty Lorenz at Ladybank station in Fife or John Duffin at Blackfriars the fact is railway art is an expression of renewed confidence in the industry. The symbolic rescue of the Euston Arch underscores a determination to put railways back right at the centre of the transport solution where they belong. If visual art informs the look and texture of the railways we should always remember that the real drama is the stories threading a thousand train journeys every day. The skill with which passengers are looked after and speeded on their way in comfort and safety is a testament to the professionalism of all railway staff, an equal music, an artistry, that we look forward to celebrating at this year's RailStaff Awards.

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