With thousands of Cambridge passengers stranded in London twice in a month following major rail failures, Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner is warning that national transport systems are proving too vulnerable. Mr Zeichner, a member of Parliament’s Transport Select Committee, has written to new Transport Secretary Grant Shapps to demand an urgent assessment.

He says: “Over many decades, this country has developed a model where thousands of people travel longer and longer distances each day to and from work, and so are completely dependent on our transport systems. Fires a few weeks ago, and now this extra-ordinary power failure, have seen King’s Cross shut down, and thousands of my constituents left to fend for themselves. We need a full explanation for what went wrong yesterday, why there was such poor communication, but most of all, we need a plan to make sure that people are not left stranded in future. Both the energy system and the railways were privatised by the Conservatives – what is clear is that these private companies are not up to providing the essential public service that passengers need in the modern world.”