NEW rail minister Lord Adonis has said there is an end in sight for beleaguered train passengers suffering from delays.

Lord Adonis – said by insiders to be a rail buff – was promoted from his job as a junior education minister in the reshuffle sparked by the resignation of transport secretary Ruth Kelly. Chief whip Geoff Hoon moved into her job, while rail minister Tom Harris was sacked.

The Department for Transport has confirmed that Lord Adonis will have responsibility for rail but, as he is a member of the House of Lords, the new junior transport minister Paul Clark will answer Commons questions on his behalf.

Andrew Adonis had spent three years at education, where he was seen as a key player in the Government’s reform agenda. A former journalist and academic, he worked closely with Tony Blair on education and public services, and headed the No. 10 Policy Unit before becoming a minister.

He will have specific responsibility for Crossrail – sure to prove a more challenging project in a credit crunch than had been foreseen – as well as being in charge of environment and climate change issues, cleaner fuels and vehicles.

Mr Clark, Gillingham and Rainham MP, will have responsibility for light rail, local authority transport and issues such as buses and walking.

In his first Parliamentary appearance in his new job, Lord Adonis was told by Lord Dubs, a former Labour MP, that “weekend journeys by rail are still difficult, if not impossible” and over the summer, maintenance work overran the weekend by several days.

Lord Adonis noted that Network Rail was fined £14 million for the late running of work at Rugby on the West Coast main line.

“However, although there has been unavoidable inconvenience for passengers in the completion of the work – this is a huge £8 billion programme to upgrade the line – when it is completed by the end of the year, journey times will significantly reduce and the inconvenience to which my noble friend and others have been subjected will be at an end.

“The gains will be considerable; for example, the journey from London to Lancaster, which in 2004 took three hours 13 minutes, will reduce to two hours 24 minutes.
“So, to use a railway metaphor, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

He also revealed what happened when Mr Brown offered him his new job: “My call came while I was in an art gallery and the custodian asked me to turn off my mobile phone.

“I toyed with the idea of telling him that it was the Prime Minister on the line but thought that he might not believe me, so I made a rapid exit and took the call in the street.”