Dr Cable said the operators had failed to meet the demand of passengers returning to the borough from central London after midnight.

Train services to stations in Twickenham cease shortly after midnight. Dr Cable said: "This flies in the face of the evidence that there is a new peak hour at around midnight as people try to get home from entertainment in central London.

"Consequently a lot of people who would use trains drive into town by car, creating early evening congestion."

His comments followed the publication of a report by the London Regional Passengers Committee, which found that demand for tubes running after midnight had increased by 94 percent since 1995.

It also revealed that train services varied between stations and were not related to demand.