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Saturday's Letters: Passengers face travails of travelling by train
From: Paul Sherwood, South Kilvington,Thirsk, North Yorkshire. I ONLY travelled on the former LNER as a child; other than recalling iconic steam locomotives, I don't remember much apart from the filthy conditions of the stations.
The conditions of travel were quite abysmal on the former British Railways and continued with their appalling punctuality and scruffy trains throughout the days of the former British Rail.
Since privatisation, the condition of rolling stock has improved, more recently punctuality has improved and stations are somewhat cleaner and have been modernised – but costs have become prohibitive.
With the latest failure of the National Express franchise on the East Coast Main Line, following on shortly after the failure of the Great North Eastern Railway, there is obviously a problem in financing. This cannot be overcome by starting to
charge for reserving a seat, something that should be guaranteed by your purchase
of a ticket to travel.
However, is it logical that I have not the slightest idea of how much a ticket will cost me? A single from York to Thirsk costs anything between 3 and 10; a return is 8.
If I wanted a single to London, it could vary from about 20 to about 120. On top of this, I am not even guaranteed a seat,
and I have to pay 5 to 10 to park at a station.
It is nonsense, hardly commensurate with the Government's plea for people to use public transport.
If I travel in India, on an efficient and fairly modern rail service I know what it will cost; there's a column on the timetable that tells me it's "X" number of kilometres from A to B, and in the back of the timetable there's a list of
rates for each different class
of travel.
National Express claims that falling passenger numbers is one of the causes of its demise. It's hardly surprising. Car travel is quicker up to medium distance, and air travel is cheaper for longer distances – and even long-distance coaches guarantee you a seat.
Who wants to spend 180 for a ticket and stand for four hours?
Cruise liner plan 'recipe for disaster'
From: T Carlile, Park Avenue, Shelley Park, Huddersfield.
THE notion of a cruise liner port in Hull (Yorkshire Post, June 22) would certainly lead to a cataclysmic financial disaster.
The article mentions the attractions. A Premier League soccer club and rugby league. You mention a shopping mall. Even today, at least 70 per cent of cruise passengers are mature. They have seen shopping malls in Lisbon, Barcelona and Rome. With respect, to a degree Britain cannot compete.
The article even mentions the lovely Dales. But to get there a coach would have to traverse a flat, uninteresting landscape for at least one hour, before returning to the ship. The business development manager talks about potential. To be honest, potential means absolutely nothing and any research with knowledge of the cruise industry could only agree.
Hull is a nice city, with excellent ferry connections. However, a port of call for cruise liners is a total recipe for financial disaster, unless you are a property developer.
Parking problems
From: Alan Dick, Burgess Way, Brooke, Norwich.
I HAVE just returned home from a week's break in North Yorkshire and, as a disabled driver, I must comment upon the lack of parking facilities in Richmond.
We visited the town on a Wednesday, and parking places reserved for disabled persons were occupied by private cars and commercial vans. There appeared to be no police or parking attendant present.
In desperation, we visited the old railway station, where, after half an hour's loitering, not one car moved. Surely they could not all be in the visiting centre?
Suddenly, I spotted a man taking pictures of the parked cars and he introduced himself in a very friendly manner.
It would appear that he was checking to see whether the area was being hogged by locals who park there then walk into town for their work, as the council was aware of the problem at the station.
He also mentioned that the locals knew in advance when a traffic warden would be visiting Richmond and once he had been, it becomes a free-for-all.
If Richmond wishes to attract visitors like me, it should look at this problem.
Criminal waste
Bill Marsh, Beadle Garth, Copmanthorpe, York.
REGARDING your story, "Undesirable asylum seeker must be freed" (Yorkshire Post, June 27).
This is the latest example of why the ordinary person in
our country shakes their head in despair.
A Somalian enters the country illegally. He embarks on a life of crime, doubtless causing enormous distress to those whose lives he affected, and when caught, challenges the decision to return him from whence he came.
Three years of legal wrangling follows as he argues a case through the High Court as well as the Court of Appeal.
I can't imagine how much time and money has been spent capturing him and then, perversely, providing him with all that's needed to pursue three years of legal argument through the highest courts in the land.
Are we mad? He chose to come here illegally, he decided to blight other's lives with his criminality so surely deserves nothing more than a speedy return to his homeland.
Perhaps he's chosen here because the Somalis deal with criminals with more common sense than we do?
Pension debate
From: John Weldon, Grantley, Ripon.
WHEN is the great "non- debate" going to end and the real debate begin?
I am, of course, referring to this country's two class system, ever widening by the day, between people who work in the private sector and produce our wealth – who are losing their jobs and pension rights at an ever-increasing rate – and the ever-growing bloated, public sector, who don't lose their jobs and whose pensions are index-linked.
They can retire at 60 or even earlier, while the private-sector worker must work until they are 65 at least. With their pension (if they have one) subject to negotiation.
What sort of fairness is this?
Why the deafening silence from our so-called leaders? Dare they not shake out the dead wood in the public sector?
Strange, for they seem not to give a hoot for us in the private sector, who have taken the full blast of this New Labour-led recession.
Unreliability mars prospects for wind turbines
From: Thomas Sheriff, Nettleham Road, Lincoln.
WITH regard to the letter from Mark Gregory (Yorkshire Post, June 24), the major problem with all wind turbines is their unreliability.
Being totally dependent on the variations of the wind, they can only generate useful amounts of energy within a relatively narrow band of wind speeds.
A good example was on a very cold day last December when the demand on the system was 58,000 megawatts (MW).
The possible declared output from more than 2,000 wind turbines was in excess of 1,800MW; the amount that was actually generated by wind power was no more than
36MW – less than 0.06 per cent of the total load demand on that day.
They are also very expensive to maintain, requiring the erection of very expensive scaffolding and they are, for this reason, subsidised by the Government to approximately 250,000 per wind turbine per annum. By contrast, nuclear power stations do not receive
a subsidy.
Last year, in Denmark, two wind turbines were totally destroyed when they could not be stopped in a high wind. Technicians sent to resolve the problem had to run for their lives when the structures collapsed.
They are also prone to lightning strikes and there was a case in Japan where more than 50 wind turbines were damaged, several beyond repair, when the blades sheared off in high winds.
Only a few months ago, in Lincolnshire, one machine was put out of action because of blade fatigue.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: East
