Network Rail has upgraded power supplies and signalling systems and lengthened 41 platforms at 12 stations on the Midland main line north of London to accommodate the new trains which are nearly 270 yards (250m) long.
Incredibly, at the same time this damning indictment was being issued, the Clinton White House was once again signalling its willingness to "depersonalize" the conflict with Saddam Hussein: His removal from power would no longer be a precondition for a restoration of normal relations between the United States and Iraq.