At last, Britain's main political parties agree on something: we need to build high speed rail lines. Andrew Adonis, Labour's transport secretary, has unveiled plans for new railway lines, just months after the Conservatives said they would scrap plans for a third runway at Heathrow in favour of high speed rail.

I'm warming to Adonis. He's talked more sense in his first two months than all New Labour's previous transport bosses put together. Cardiff will see its first electric trains thanks to his decision to electrify the Great Western main line to South Wales. (But before we get carried away, the new electric journey times will be slower than the best achieved by the current high speed diesels over 20 years ago.)

The channel tunnel rail link has shown the benefits of high speed rail. We've seen a big switch of London to Paris and Brussels air traffic to Eurostar. Let's hope the new political consensus means we see faster progress than the 20 year project to build the 67 mile line to the channel tunnel.

PS: the photo below shows an InterCity 125 high speed train on the Great Western line near Wootton Bassett in early 1978. These trains are still in front line service 31 years later – but rather slower than in British Railways days.