Simon Calder, travel correspondent for The Independent, has marked his final day after 32 years and 13 days in the role. He joined the paper on 16 May 1994, when it was based in a former insurance office on City Road in the City of London, close to its current location. Calder described the privilege and pleasure of his career, noting that travel was more expensive, complicated, and dangerous in the 1990s.
Communication posed significant challenges. Calder recalled using a bulky laptop in a Soviet-era hotel in Novosibirsk, Siberia, where he dismantled a Russian phone to file an article about a bathhouse. He connected to The Independent's mainframe at a speed of 180 words per minute, joking that Morse code might have been easier.
The Independent enforced a strict 'no freebies' policy under founding editor Andreas Whittam Smith, making Calder acutely aware of travel costs. In the mid-1990s, a Virgin Atlantic flight from Heathrow to Los Angeles and back from New York cost £179, but European fares remained high. A student card helped, but London to Glasgow was at least £100 return by air.
When easyJet launched in November 1995 with fares as low as £29 one-way from Luton to Glasgow, Calder was sceptical. The airline required phone bookings, had no allocated seating, and charged for tea and shortbread. Calder declined to attend the launch, but easyJet survived, along with a small Irish airline called Ryanair.
Rail privatisation began in 1996 under John Major's government, with the first privatised train departing from Twickenham to London Waterloo. Passenger numbers have since doubled, but Labour is now renationalising operators, with Govia Thameslink returning to public ownership. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander stated that millions of passengers in the South East and East of England will benefit from public ownership, run for public good rather than private profit.
Calder highlighted ongoing capacity issues on north-south intercity routes, lamenting the lack of high-speed rail connecting Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, and London. He also noted the launch of the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai in 1997, accessible via Emirates, which then carried nearly 10,000 passengers.
