Nigel Harris

Nigel Harris (born March 1957) is an English journalist and media commentator. He was managing editor of RAIL, a UK rail industry magazine. He has been in the railway publishing industry since 1981 where he started as assistant editor of the publication Steam World. He is often invited to speak on British television about accidents and other rail related matters. He is regularly called before the Transport Select Committee of the UK Parliament to give evidence and opinion. He has also taught on the Winchester Journalism course. Education and early career Harris was born in March 1957 in Burnley, Lancashire and educated at Burnley Grammar School. He then attended and graduated from the University of Wales, Lampeter, in 1978 with Honours in History. He started his career in journalism at The Westmorland Gazette in 1979 as a trainee reporter. In 1981 he started as assistant editor of the publication Steam World. He has also edited Steam Railway and Trains Illustrated. He co-founded and managed a book publishing company, Silver Link, from 1984 to 1990 which has since been acquired. Journalistic and publishing career Harris was appointed editor of Rail in 1995. The magazine is currently produced every two weeks by Bauer Consumer Media. Since 1995 he has written extensively about the privatisation of British Rail and the impact of the privatisation of British Rail. He has written opinion and analysis for The Times, and provided specialist rail industry comment for, among others, the BBC's Today programme. He has also specialist books on railways and shipping to his credit. One major project has been editing and researching for A New Illustrated History of Her Majesty's Railway Inspectorate, by Ian Prosser and David Keay. Harris has provided expert evidence to the Transport Select Committee of the UK Parliament. He was the principal witness at a televised select committee meeting on 26 May 2021 discussing the Williams-Shapps White Paper on Great British Railways formation. He has also given evidence to the Rail Accident Investigation Branch. He is a regular conference speaker, panelist and chair.