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The high-speed rail train rumbles on with a report delivered by High Speed 2 (not being published yet) to Lord Adonis yesterday; he will be making proposals on the back of it by the end of March 2010. While any decision taken will probably be retaken (and retaken, and...) after a General Election, Lord Adonis is proving a more can-do Transport Minister than any of his Labour predecessors.

Lord Adonis has also taken an interest in overhauling old carriages and moving them to parts of the country where they are needed as a stop-gap. There are certainly some inexplicably short trains on our networks. What is Arriva doing running 2 carriage trains on a morning service from Manchester to Pembroke? As this train approaches Cardiff through places like Cwmbran and Pontypool with probably quite low car-ownership, capacity is uncomfortably exposed. Can margins really be that tight?