Underground trains are completely different

I WOULD like to thank Mr D Laythorpe (Yorkshire Post, August 17) for his reply to my letter about crackpot railway schemes.

I raised no objection whatsoever over the Harrogate electrification, I just think that the “hard-headed businessmen” to whom he refers have never worked in railways. London Underground trains are built just for that function and like most things (and people) from London would not be popular outside the area.

They are built to different construction and use regulation run on a different voltage and current collation and may even have to have their own power generation system! Do they think any top executive arriving for a conference in Leeds by first class would be impressed by finishing his journey on a run- down train?

The huge investment in new trains for London will be making lots of proper trains redundant; these have proper seating, luggage space, toilets and maybe first class accommodation.

I also hope they have done their homework with Network Rail as they will not like the idea of mixing different rolling stock in a congested area like Leeds or York. If they want to see an example of what they are trying to achieve, I suggest they sample the excellent Merseyrail system.