Triumph turned to tragedy last week when the Wrexham and Shropshire Railway hit the buffers after providing the best service to passengers of any railway in the country.

After the staff and the managers who ran the company, which, unlike the other train companies enjoyed no public subsidy, the man most frustrated by the closure must be North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson.

Along with the late David Lloyd, the Tory MP campaigned tirelessly against endless red signal tape to pave the way for a direct service between North Shropshire and London.

With the backing of MPs of all parties, the duo had meeting after meeting with ministers and bureaucrats in their bid to improve rail connections.

“The closure of Wrexham and Shropshire is just tragic,” said Mr Paterson.

“The company provided an exceptional service with the highest approval rating in the country, recruiting excellent local staff and using local produce.”

Not that the Northern Ireland Secretary is giving up, and he has already had meetings with fellow cabinet minister Transport Secretary Philip Hammond and rail minister Theresa Villers.

“We have now got to make the case all over again. It was a team effort last time, and I’m sure it will be again,” said Mr Paterson.

One little window is the forthcoming review of the Virgin Trains franchise whose West Coast operation comes up for renewal (or otherwise) in March next year.

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The National Health Service can be a major vote swinger as we saw when local GP Richard Taylor won two successive elections following a downgrading of services at Kidderminster General Hospital.

For this, if for no other reason, no MP likes to see services lost at their local hospital. Neverthless, the future of district general hospital services in Shropshire is a delicate and sensitive subject which will require compromise somewhere along the line.

At a public meeting on Monday, Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski put up a strong case for a determined fight including public demonstrations against proposals to downgrade some services at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.

There was something of a change of tone by the time Mr Kawczynski voiced the concerns of his constituents at Prime Minister’s Question Time on Wednesday, but he stressed he had the support of Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies whose constituents also use the Shrewsbury hospital.

The fine balance that the Conservative MP has to weigh is that a tug-of-war over services between Shrewsbury and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford could seriously damage the trust’s bid for foundation status.

That, in turn, might even open up the possibility of the trust being swallowed up by a neighbouring hospital group from outside the county an outcome which would leave hospital services in Shropshire decided by administrators based not in Shrewsbury or Telford, but in Wolverhampton, Stafford or Stoke.

Compromise is an ugly word for some politicians, but it’s not a noun to be expunged from an MP’s lexicon altogether.

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Just about everyone has had his or her three pen’orth on what’s happening in Egypt and the wider Middle East this week.

Broadcasters started calling Mohamed ElBaradei “Opposition leader” earlier this week when he’s only just returned to the country of his birth.

The whole point about Egypt is that there has been no official opposition for decades.

Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard at least received some first-hand information in meetings with the Yemeni foreign minister, Abu Bakr al-Qirbi, on Tuesday, and at a dinner also attended by Ludlow MP Philip Dunne with Egypt’s ambassador in London, Hatem Seif el-Nasr, on Wednesday.

“The pace of change is remarkable, and what happens in the Middle East ultimately impacts on everybody in Shropshire, whether it be through the price of fuel, international aid, military intervention or political activity,” said Mr Pritchard.

“Stability in the region is vital for both our national and local economies,” added the Tory MP.

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Mr Pritchard was operating with a heavy cold this week. His wife, Sonya, puts it down to his decision to go out to fill the bird-feeders in their back garden at sub-zero temperatures at the weekend dressed only in his pyjamas.

Let’s hope there were no paparazzi around.

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David Cameron has played safe by appointing the BBC’s Craig Oliver as his new Director of Communications in succession to Andy Coulson.

Mr Coulson resigned because, as former editor of the News of the World, he could not shake off the story about phone hacking by journalists.

The Prime Minister has appointed Mr Oliver, who has worked for ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five as well as a top editor at BBC News.

It’s a sign of the times that Mr Oliver has a background in broadcasting rather than newspapers.

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First our hillsides (uneconomic, dangerous-to-wildlife and ugly wind farms), then our seas (more uneconomic wind farms), then our forests, now how about selling off our cliffs and beaches?

You know those beaches on the continent where you have to pay to put feet on sand (or at the very least hire a lounger).

Why not do the same in this country? We could sell off Shell Island to a Dutch oil company, Black Rock Sands to a record company or Morecambe Bay to Michael McIntyre.

You know it makes sense.