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It's a tale of two coasts.

The West Coast has a Main Line with a shiny new upgrade. Its appears secure.

Under it'll also get a new High Speed line.

Then there's the East Coast.

It's a line reaching capacity. And train operator is l less than two years

And to add insult to injury,

So how might a deteriorating service damage the North East's economy?

Badly according to . It wants urgent action for the here and now and the future.

It wants the franchise mess sorted double quick.

to Newcastle, Durham and Darlington to avoid the area becoming an economic backwater.

Cumbria for once looks like a winner though.

For many years some Cumbrian commuters hopped across the Pennines to Newcastle because it was quicker to get to London that way than going down the West Coast Line.

That's no longer the case, and with a high speed link to London, the economy could get another filip.

And Cumbria can also boast a major motorway - the M6 - while the North East has a few token stretches here and there.

I suppose unlike the North East, they might have a line to argue about anyway.

And even without a stop,

It's no wonder then that transport issues are the ones raised most often with North East Minister Nick Brown.

And we'll be questioning him on them on this Sunday's Politics Show too.

The Tyne and Wear Metro "sell-off" and even the A1 could also come up.

Let me know if there's any point you'd like me to make to him.

* By the way three days after his demotion, I still have no answer on whether Alan Duncan is still Shadow Minister for Tyneside. I'm not sure how long we can cope with this power vacuum?

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