Mile zero - and I'm off

Started the great election rail tour with Peter Mandelson and a dozen other ministers on the dreary concourse of Euston station - no, they hadn't come to wave me off; we are all on our way to Labour's manifesto launch at Birmingham Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Edgbaston.

The on-time 09.03 Virgin express seems to be the "manifesto train". On a quick walk through, there are about three journalists for every minister, all anxious for a sneak preview. Peter is ostentatiously ignoring them all, buried behind the Financial Times as befits the Business Secretary.

Transport will be a major theme of the manifesto, including the plan for a north-south high speed line which I have been working on for more than a year, which would slash the journey time from London to Birmingham from the current 82 minutes to as little as 31 minutes, while also transforming Birmingham's links north to Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Scotland, and giving a fast connection to Heathrow.

I go on from Birmingham to Leeds and Sheffield later today to preach the high-speed message there too, then back to London. Today's projected mileage - 426.