Shildon to UAE: A 200-year railway journey

It’s a small world, which was made smaller by something that happened in a little town in England two centuries ago.

I’ve been back in the UK seeing family and friends and with it came a reminder of the interconnected world we live in.

200 years ago a place in County Durham launched the first steam-powered passenger railway line. Two centuries on, similar journeys have been taking place with Etihad Rail in the UAE.

That small town in County Durham that changed the world happens to be where I have my UK home. Shildon is not exactly the place you would expect to find at the centre of a global transportation revolution. It is a low-key and quiet place in the north-east of England, a region known for powering the Industrial Revolution, from coal mining to ship building.

While not on many people’s sightseeing lists, Shildon has changed all of our lives. On September 27, 1825, the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened, with George and Robert Stephenson’s Locomotion No.1 steaming its way from Shildon towards Stockton. It was the world’s first public railway to use steam locomotives to carry passengers and freight.

Suddenly, the world got smaller. The railway transformed how people travelled, how goods moved and how cities grew. It supercharged industry and became one of Britain’s great exports to the world, from India to the USA - and now the UAE.

 I’m writing this for Gulf News on one of the passenger trains still running on the same line that was created 200 years ago. Unfortunately, there is less industrial use nowadays due to globalisation. Now the train takes me to football matches with my son.

There is something wonderfully circular about typing this as I see the countryside of County Durham go by while thinking about the UAE’s passenger network that will eventually connect 11 cities and regions.

A technology that helped transform Britain’s industrial heartlands in the 19th century is now being embraced by the world’s most ambitious young nation as part of its vision for the future. 

Railways don’t just make things a bit easier; they change how we think about distance and open new possibilities. They make it easier to live in one place and work in another. I used to spend a lot of time in London. I would jump on a train in Shildon and cover the 250 miles in just two hours and 30 minutes. I could do a day’s work in the capital and sometimes be home to put the kids to bed. 

They also open up opportunities for tourism, business and education. They connect communities that might otherwise remain separated by geography and, increasingly, they provide an alternative to endless journeys by car.

The UAE has spent decades building an extraordinary road network and some of the world’s most impressive airports. Now it is adding another piece to that infrastructure puzzle. The Dubai station is set to open next month and we’ll be there for that launch as well.

There’s an incredible museum in Shildon called Locomotion. It has dozens of historic trains and carriages from over the years, and people can get an insight into what it was like working on a steam engine, which sounds hotter than a midday walk on Jumeirah Beach in August. The Flying Scotsman is a regular visitor as well, giving people short trips up and down the line using the old coal-based technology.

There are a couple of lessons for us all in the museum:

1) All ideas are equal: Sometimes the most important revolutions begin quietly in places that the rest of the world barely notices.

2) Keep going: Many people doubted the railway would work and were investing in horses instead. A few men kept pushing and changed the world. 

Shildon was once a small railway town helping invent the future. Now, 200 years later, that future is speeding across the UAE. Not bad for a little town in County Durham. 

I will be back in Dubai next week and raring to go as we get set for the schools returning and the season starting. I hope you have all managed to get a well-earned and meaningful summer break.