Adonis' Rail Blog

It's the first time I've known a Transport Minister keep his own blog about travelling through Britain by train, but then Lord Andrew Adonis is no ordinary Transport Minister. Those in the industry were cautiously optimistic when he was made Minister of State for Transport in Gordon Brown's re-shuffle last year; indeed, Adonis himself admitted in an exclusive interview with RAIL's managing editor Nigel Harris that he approached the PM, requesting his secondment to the DfT.

During the middle of this month, in typical hands-on Adonis fashion, the minister chose to undertake a week-long trip all over the country using the rail network. Equipped with only a standard-class railrover the minister undertook a fascinating meander.

Click here to read the minister's five-day blog, criss-crossing the country.

M'colleague and I undertook our own week-long railrover jaunt during June 2005, though in addition to lasting two days more than Lord Adonis, we also saved up a few more pennies and travelled first class. We alternated our overnights between sleeper and b+b. Having sampled the Cornish Riviera sleeper, along with ScotRail's Anglo-Scottish equivalents between Euston-Fort William/Inverness, I can't recommend them highly enough.

Adonis' jaunt has inspired me to dig my railrover shots out from the archive. A small selection of some of the most interesting will appear in the next few days. (GL)