During the December 2019 strikes we did our utmost to keep passengers moving and carried over 80% of the number of passengers we normally would have done at this time of year. 

The news today was dominated by the damage caused by Storm Dennis. With 300 flood warnings in place across the UK, including five severe warnings in England, this level of rainfall seems unprecedented. Crickhowell in Powys Wales is a place I know well and the pictures there are extraordinary.

To all those loved-up couples out there, a happy Valentine's Day. With Storm Dennis heading our way, it looks like a weekend indoors. The Cabinet reshuffle makes all the front pages, with my colleague Sajid Javid out in the cold having resigned yesterday. Politics!

AT the time of writing, the new coronavirus sweeping China has broken out in 25 countries across the world, infecting more than 43,000 people.

On a wet and blustery morning, I headed to Portland to visit Sunseeker, the luxury boatbuilder. A major employer in my constituency - c 250 staff - I had not been there for a while and requested this visit for an update. It was a most interesting morning.

Out for a run and into the Commons. Today the Sentencing Bill was being pushed through parliament. This is the legislation that will prevent convicted terrorists from leaving jail having served only half their sentence.

On the point about mortality, leaked reports are coming out of China that the number of those who are dying is considerably higher than we first anticipated. Is that true? Is that what my right hon. Friend is hearing? Will he also tell the House, and thereby the country, who is most vulnerable?

Into the park for a run. Trawl through the papers and other correspondence at my desk and then off to PCH for the second meeting of the South Western Railway (SWR) APPG, chaired by the newly elected MP for W Dorset, Chris Loder, whose career to date has been on the railways.

Eight patients in England have tested positive for coronavirus: if more cases are confirmed in the UK, it will be announced as soon as possible by the Chief Medical Officer of the affected country.

Well, storm Ciara has certainly done its worst across large swathes of the country, although we in the south were not quite as badly affected. Film of a sheep trailer being swept down the hill in Yorkshire certainly brought home the scale and ferocity of this storm.