Trains remain a disgrace

I WOULD like to add my voice to the many who have already written to your newspaper about the state of the train service between Leeds to York via Harrogate. These trains are frankly a disgrace, poorly cleaned and manifestly inadequate to transport the number of passengers forced to use them (Yorkshire Post, September 24).

I boarded the 4.29pm Leeds to Harrogate train on September 20 – two carriages packed to suffocation point.

I realise times are hard and finance thin on the ground, but the need for decent civilised rail transport should now be a top priority.

Ashton rather than Austen

From: Tim Mickleburgh, Boulevard Avenue, Grimsby.

WELL said Jennifer Hunter (Yorkshire Post, September 28)! For surely there is little that can be said from yet another adaptation of works by either Jane Austen or the Brontës?

It’s not that I don’t like the latter (though the former is a taste I’m yet to acquire), rather that filming a well-loved book is the safest of bets to give you a success.

There are though many novels crying out for adaptations, and I’m sure your readers could provide many suggestions. Mine is Grass Roots by Joe Ashton, a political novel about a one-industry town facing the loss of its main factory.

Pianissimo?

From: Norma Bartle, Cottingley, Bingley.

I LOVE music. I have a grand piano. Played very badly by myself. However I was amazed to see how much money has been spent on providing grand pianos for the world of music in Leeds. Millions!

How can it be when libraries are closing? Retirement homes are closing. People are losing jobs hand over fist. We are lectured every day how we must economise. Pianos a specialist art form given money of this ilk...

The world has gone mad, Dame Fanny Waterman. You are a credit to your art form – but you are deluded to believe that this is fair and just.