There is something mildly annoying about a train journey that should have taken 25 minutes actually taking an hour and a hour. My attempt last night to travel from central London to the suburbs did not endear the railways to me. So today, back in London, I had in my diary a meeting with Network Rail in Parliament with our Parliamentary Transport Team.

I decided however it was not the place to raise the problems of power failures on commuter trains, frustrating though the problem is. Instead we did have a useful discussion about the Tyne Valley line - there is a proposal to axe Blaydon and Dunston stations - and about the new rail service from Sunderland to London which will compete with GNER.

I'll be back to them with more comments about Blaydon and Dunston.