YP Letters: British-built Pacer trains good enough for me

AS a regular traveller on the Pacer trains between Sheffield and Doncaster, I find them perfectly adequate for the journey (Tom Richmond, The Yorkshire Post, January 24).

Tom Richmond: Time for Rail Minister Andrew Jones to prove he’s on the side of commuters

Their design philosophy was to provide local rail travel at a cost comparable to a bus journey for the same purpose.

They fulfil this requirement admirably.

Those who have joined the chorus of complaint appear in the majority to have never used these trains, and their demands for the electrification of the whole rail network are made without considering where the enormous sums of money required are to come from.

The cost of rail travel is increased by the replacement of well-designed British-made trains by ones from every foreign country imaginable, while the best option would be to build updated versions of reliable existing designs.

For express travel, I would favour the construction of updated versions of the 
125mph high speed trains, including an electrically-powered version.

This would involve providing work for British factories in Crewe, Derby and Loughborough so I suppose that is a non-starter in the view of our so-called experts.