Transport secretary hates travelling by train

Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin has disclosed to the Sunday Times that he is infuriated by disruption to his regular journey from Derby to London.

“I use the train most weeks to go from Derby to London and I use it on the Sunday and sometimes it drives me bloody crackers,” he said.

He singled out delays caused by engineering works as particularly frustrating.

This is an interesting statement, the man in charge of public transport isn’t happy with how the trains are running, if only he could do something about it.

What’s even more interesting is that this news comes on the same day that the Public Accounts Committee has stated that the estimated benefits of the planned HS2 high-speed rail link are dwindling as costs rise, and say that the Department for Transport is failing to present a “convincing strategic case”. This means that there is no evidence that HS2 will do anybody any good.

Thankfully there is a way to rectify the situation, scrap HS2 and invest the 40 odd billion set aside to pay for it in our existing rail networks, if the government does that then Mr McLoughlin will never have to worry about his train being late in future, oh and save some of that money to sort the roads out as well while you're at it.