Transport Secretary Lord Adonis: a man on a mission

By Robert Chesshyre 228PM GMT 25 Mar 2010

National Express in focus as Citys trainspotters watch recession steam ahead Lord Adonis no need to cut travel to save the planet, says Transport Secretary Lord Adonis warns 200mph rail upgrade should not be abandoned Lord Adonis high-speed rail would be end of domestic flights 142mph train makes first UK journey

Gordon Brown equally is near ecstatic. "Great day… long and glorious history of British railways… fantastic achievement… he tells a small knot of shivering journalists and rail executives gathered in the pre-dawn cold, before hurrying to the warmth of his car and Downing Street. But the man whose eyes shine and whose enthusiasm lights up the winter gloom is the slight man, Lord (Andrew) Adonis, the Secretary of State for Transport.

The transport supremo since June, Adonis is with the prospect of Labour being tossed from office a man with a mission and an eye on the clock. For him, the Kent line is but the start of a revolution. Two weeks ago he launched the next stage of his dream a White Paper with detailed proposals for the 15-18 billion London to Birmingham section of a high-speed line that Adonis hopes will, in the fullness of time, head north and link London to Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Adonis is intent on a legacy not only for the next generation but for the distant future. It is a bold ambition for a politician who has, in the words of the old political joke, risen without trace (his only elected office was as an Oxford city councillor when, as a post-graduate student, he represented the long-defunct Social Democrats). He clearly doesnt intend to disappear in the same manner.

Rarely for a Cabinet minister, Adonis, 47, is a round peg in a round hole, and almost equally rarely he is a doer, concerned with the practical rather than the ideological. He first became involved with the railways as a schoolboy when he campaigned to save his local line, accusing British Railways of "lying in order to justify closure. He went to the station and counted the passengers, thus refuting successfully BRs cooked figures that no one was using the trains.

In an era when many ministers rely on position papers, experts and lobbying, Adonis sees for himself. Last year he travelled the rail network; visited the worst train stations; drove much of the motorway network; and, armed with his camera to gather evidence, cycled around the bike sheds at Londons termini to count the number of secure spaces for commuters bicycles (not many).

Academic, would-be biographer (Roy Jenkins anointed him as his official chronicler, though Adonis had to pass due to work commitments), journalist (he wrote about public policy and industry for the Financial Times and the Observer), he came to office via the Downing Street policy unit. In the 1990s Adonis was a Blairite (Jenkins had persuaded him to quit the Lib Dems and join Labour, arguing that by then both parties were social democratic and a young man with ambitions should join the larger one). Adonis was invited to work at Number 10 by David Miliband, whom he succeeded in 2001 as head of the policy unit.

Adoniss first interest was schools he is the architect of the academy policy and in 2005 Blair made him schools minister and a peer (the Rt Hon Baron Adonis of Camden Town). As a fierce critic of many local education authorities, Adonis was not always popular and had dust-ups with teaching unions. When Blair quit, he expected Brown to say, "Thank you and goodbye, but instead the new PM moved him to transport and later promoted him to the Cabinet.

As a journalist, Adonis had been to France to write about the TGV network. He was an instant convert, and now among all the claims on a Transport Secretarys time he sees himself as the apostle of high-speed travel. He says (naturally) that he expects Labour to win in the summer, but his pressing purpose in what are probably his few remaining months in office is to lay down firm cross-party foundations for a north/south rail line that will speed travellers from London to Scotland at 250mph.

Adoniss father, Nicos, Greek Cypriot by origin, arrived in Britain in the late 1950s with six siblings. First a waiter and then a postman, Nicos married an English­woman, who bore him two children and then vanished. Nicos had no option ("he worked every hour God sent) but to place Andrew and his sister, Michelle, in care.

We converse aboard a Euston to Manchester Pendolino (Adonis would have travelled in the cab had it not been for me he is that sort of train nut). A child raised in care is more likely to wind up in court than sitting in Cabinet, and Adonis admits that it was "very tough. However, he adds, "You dont hear much about the successes, but all the agencies of the state, the failure of which is written about so much, worked for me. I had brilliant social workers, a fantastic childrens home and a most wonderful lady who ran it. (He stayed in touch until her recent death aged 90.)

"The state can do an excellent job bringing up children, he continues. "I was taught resilience and have no problem getting along with people of all backgrounds. His big stroke of luck was that Camden then sent suitable children to boarding schools. He went to Kingham Hill in the Cotswolds, a school founded in the late 19th century by a member of the Baring family for east London street children, who were taught the three "Rs, Christian belief and a trade before (often) being packed off to farms in Canada.

By Adoniss day (the early 1970s), the school had become more "normal. At 11 Adonis was "rather vulnerable, shy and retiring. He was not alone. "Lots of pupils had difficult backgrounds, he says. "For many, life was a struggle, often for reasons well beyond their control. He himself blossomed, leading fellow pupils to lobby the head; debating ("Ive always been able to say my piece); and, of course, campaigning to save the local railway line (now a highly successful route).

His English teacher had been to Keble College, Oxford, and persuaded Adonis to try. "He taught me to aim high, and said that there was no reason why I shouldnt achieve as well as anyone else, Adonis says. A first-class degree, a doctorate and a university teaching post more than confirmed his teachers judgment.

He joined the Social Democratic Party at its foundation by the Gang of Four, and Jenkins became his mentor and inspiration. "We would meet for lunch, Adonis says. "I would have half a glass of champagne and one of claret, which left a glass and a half of champagne and most of the claret bottle to Roy. Jenkins told him that he always worked better after lunchtime alcohol.

As might be guessed, Adonis is a workaholic. Does he switch off? He reads; walks (composing speeches as he strides around Highbury Fields near his home in Islington); cycles; swims occasionally; ferries around his children, Edmund, 12, and Alice, 10, who attend a Church of England academy.

He is a serious man but good company. His sole sustenance en route to Manchester is a banana and coffee, and it is not until mid-afternoon somewhere near Preston that he finally asks an aide for his "lunch a railway sandwich in cellophane, a biscuit and a soft drink. I suspect it is often thus.

We begin talking about his great passion high-speed rail. He rattles off the comparisons with Europe there, tens of thousands of track miles, many more thousands under construction or being planned; here, a paltry 68 miles from London to Folkestone and (until the White Paper earlier this month) no plans for more. "We should have started when the French did, he says. "What we did was privatise the railways and destroy British Rail instead of engaging in modernising, the Tory government embarked on an ideological flight of fancy. "Progressive and "modernising punctuate his conversation. But he refuses to justify present inaction (whether in education or transport) by blaming past mistakes. This, the day of the inauguration of the Kent service, he says, is the moment to push on. What about the recession? High-speed rail will not require "serious money for five years, he asserts, by which time recession will, he hopes, be a memory. Now is an ideal time for planning.

Even people who dont share his vision admire the way he gets on with things. But the goodwill began to evaporate the instant the White Paper revealing the preferred London-Birmingham route was published. The Conservatives want a different route to that proposed, one that includes Heathrow in order better to coordinate air and rail, while residents of the Chilterns, through which the line may pass, immediately voiced vehement opposition. Nimbyism is a potent political force. And many believe that the money could be spent to better effect on the existing network.

With his commitment to high-speed rail, roads and commuters are a less visible part of his agenda. The age of ambitious road-building is over. The countryside may be torn up for high-speed rail tracks, but further motorway improvements will be incremental, what critics might call make-and-mend. The experiment of using hard shoulders as traffic lanes (pioneered on the M42 around Birmingham) is accounted a success and more hard-shoulder conversions will happen. Congestion charges apart, road-pricing is (Adonis says for technical reasons) for a distant tomorrow, if ever. He is watching the Dutch the Netherlands have set 2015 as the earliest possible date.

Although he has given the go-ahead for Heathrows third runway (he believes that it can operate within the strict CO2 emission limits), Adonis describes himself as "green. His first act on appointment was to surrender his ministerial car, and he pops on and off the Tube like any other commuter. His goal is joined-up "door-to-door journeys, linked by necessary provision (his beloved bike sheds at stations, for example) and visible, clear-cut information.

Commuters seem to approve. The transport-users watchdog London TravelWatch said he is an excellent minister, who, because of his knowledge, is able and prepared to "challenge poor operational and customer service levels. It mentioned with approval his campaign for cycle facilities. He is not, it says, only interested in the "mega projects.

Adonis stresses that much that would help commuters (and other train passengers) costs little. He is an enthusiast for elected mayors they get things done and would like to see all major cities follow Londons example where both Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson have, he says, improved the capitals transport out of recognition.

Another goal is extending rail electrification. His mission the day we travel north is to announce the electrification of lines that will feed into the shortly-to-be-electrified Manchester-Liverpool line (where it all started 180 years ago).

As a former journalist, he puts over the story succinctly. As a savvy operator, he knows that television programmes will use only 30 seconds, so he repeats his main point regardless of the question. His travelling PR purrs. "You can trust him on his own, he says. Between Bolton and Chorley Adonis finally gets his days wish he rides with the driver.

There is a rumour that, because he prefers "doing to ideology, Adonis would, if invited, join a Conservative government. This brings a vehement denial "I am a modernising social democrat and my party is the Labour Party. He recognises that his authority is diminished by being unelected, and his desire now is to be a member of an elected (rather than appointed) second chamber.

One Adonis supporter I spoke to, arguing that talent is scarce in the Labour Party, would like the solid, dependable peer to go to the Commons and lead the party (if the constitution were to allow it at the moment a life peer cant step down).

Adonis and I met again, before the White Paper, but after the transport world had been turned upside down. First Eurostar trains ground to ignominious halts under the Channel; next the snow and the salt/grit shortage hit the headlines; on Christmas Day a British-educated student tried to blow up a Detroit flight; and then British Airways cabin staff voted to strike. Adonis found himself in the hottest seat in politics. It was the first time he had faced a political dilemma of this kind. He eventually condemned the proposed strike, pleasing would-be travellers while angering Unite, the cabin-staff union, which is a major Labour Party backer and close to the Prime Minister. On television Adonis didnt look comfortable.

Before the crises, Adonis went skiing with his family when the snow came, he was assailed by the Sun newspaper for "sloping off on a luxury Alpine holiday… while Britons slid and shivered. It was a taste of the press unfairness that comes with office. He stayed put and dealt with the problems by phone. Rushing home, he felt, would be gesture politics, simply thrusting himself in front of the cameras. He is relaxed. "People think that I am personally responsible for the weather, but I have a fairly tough skin. The motorways and trunk routes, for which through the Highways Agency the Department for Transport is responsible, had stayed open.

The cold snap had been a one-year-in-29 "event, but none the less there is a debate to be had now, he says, about how prepared we should be for snow. Perversely, global warming could mean colder winters. Adonis, sipping his coffee in a station cafe, says, "What is needed is mature judgment, not kneejerk reaction. That could be his motto. He was severe on Eurostar (part-owned by the government), not for the technical failures but for the companys woeful reaction to them. "They behaved like the worst of the old-style nationalised industries, as if customers didnt matter and should just grin and bear it. That is not acceptable. It was a fiasco people were stuck in tunnels for 10 hours or more.

The high-speed "yes, but not here rumpus has begun, and the way ahead will be scarred with noisy debates. While he stays in office there will be no further Adonis family holidays on the ski slopes or elsewhere. Lord Adonis is a man in a hurry.