Wednesday's Letters: Criminal record because derailed train made me late

SINCE re-nationalisation, the the East Coast Main Line service seems to have become even worse.

I travelled out from Hebden Bridge to Colchester and back in a day on a Saver Ticket that required me to travel on specific trains.

When I came to travel back from Colchester, the ticket that I was issued sent me via London. However, I couldn't travel that way because a derailed goods train was causing delays on the line between Harwich and Liverpool Street.

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The helpful ticket clerk at Colchester re-directed me via Ipswich and March to Peterborough, and I caught the service from there. Because of this rather slow diversion at Peterborough, I didn't catch the East Coast Main Line train on which I was booked, and I just had to board whatever train I could.

On the way up to Peterborough my ticket had been checked by four

different ticket collectors and approved, in spite of the fact that I was travelling a route that wasn't on the ticket.

At about Retford, the East Coast ticket inspector told me that I was on the wrong train and issued me with a penalty notice in a quite

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outrageous sum, being the equivalent of a full peak rate rail fare from King's Cross to Leeds (even though I got on the train at Peterborough).

I had 10 days to pay it and if I didn't, a fine was added and I would receive a criminal record.

I pointed out that my ticket had been approved by four previous ticket collectors (and even clipped) but the East Coast inspector told me that there were "no exceptions" under any circumstances and if other train companies cared to use their discretion, that wasn't binding on him.

I continued to remonstrate with the inspector with the result that he put me out of the train at Doncaster and called the British Transport Police. Before doing so, he confiscated my retired person's railcard and now when I come to get another one, they won't issue it on the grounds that I am "blacked".

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I had to make my way back from Doncaster via Sheffield and Manchester, an extremely slow process, but it is surprising that all ticket

inspectors on this unbooked route accepted my ticket.

I put the matter to the Portsmouth department responsible for adjudicating these situations and they have confirmed that I must now pay several hundred pounds for the additional ticket and a fine, and I now have a criminal record.

When I talk to others, I find that this is a common occurrence on East Coast Main Line.

From: RD Wolstenholme, Brearley, Halifax.

Are BA staff militants? Of course not

From: Tom Howley, Wetherby.

THOUSANDS of us have travelled with British Airways. At the end of our flights, we thank the cabin staff for their courtesy and

professionalism.

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Have they been deceiving us? Are they all militant trade unionists determined to destroy the company, risking their own interesting jobs and the jobs of other employees? Or are they all thick, too stupid to realise the folly of their actions?

Of course not, they are intelligent hard-working people who have twice voted to take strike action to protect their working terms and conditions.

Gordon Brown has been railroaded into criticising the cabin staff for their legal and legitimate stance by the clever Tories who are interested in making political capital out of this very serious situation. He should use his good offices to bring the parties together and he should attempt to find a solution to the problem by

understanding both sides of the argument.

Three vital questions

From: Peter Asquith-Cowen First Lane, Anlaby, Hull.

IN response to Marilyn Bradley's letter "Punch and Judy still going strong" (Yorkshire Post, March 10), this letter may well, in my opinion, reflect the feelings of many people.

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There are three issues that will affect whether I will vote or stay at home come the General Election.

The first is the continuing saga of the MPs' expenses. The public is scandalised by this affair.

The second issue is very similar. Climategate, which surfaced last November, served to show that weather data had been deliberately massaged and contrary evidence was covered up.

The third issue is something we should all be concerned about.

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No matter how it is packaged, the selling off of the public utilities by the last Tory government and upheld by New Labour is nothing short

of scandalous.

These utilities belonged to the people. They have been sold off to make venal fat cats even richer, while we, the public, face increasing bills and higher costs, for what was really ours.

If the three main parties think we are all going to swallow the bait and go rushing off to vote in the same gang of career politicians, they had better think again.

This next election will be crucial for British democracy, and the contenders had better have some real, solid answers.

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The public is incensed by their behaviour and want to see heads roll.

I expect a low turnout at the polls and a hung Parliament as a result.

Where we will go from there is in the lap of the gods.

Greed and arrogance go on in banking sector

From: PG Hutchinson, Westwick, near Boroughbridge.

AFTER more than a year in recession, which will obviously continue during 2010, the banking sector still continues in the same greedy and arrogant vein, with their obscene salaries and outrageous bonuses; vast sums which should be used to repay the millions of taxpayers' money that was pumped into these banks to keep them solvent in the first place.

The whole banking system is still mired in greed and arrogance, continuing to line their own pockets with millions while still owing the taxpayer huge sums that enabled them to remain in business.

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To add to this is this Government's incompetence at managing the economy, its obsession in fuelling a nanny state, and a bloated public sector that needs to be cut down to size sooner rather than later.

The whole country needs a complete change of government and a radical change of direction to get it out of this quagmire.

From: Martin O'Connell, Stackhouse, Settle.

WE have been hearing for months how bank bonuses are still justified even after the whole ethos almost bankrupted the world economy.

I have kept telling myself that probably there are still certain sections of nationalised banks – investment management arms, etc – where profits are made by individual skill and experience, and no doubt these are the ones where the bonuses have been genuinely earned.

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Additionally, they are now increasingly being paid in shares and only released over a longer period of sustained realised earnings. I can accept that, even though the levels are perhaps unnecessarily high.

They are being paid out of realised profits to individuals who will go elsewhere if the appropriate rewards are not forthcoming.

But a nationalised building society carrying out a fairly simple business – or so it should be – of borrowing and lending money, cannot justify increasing its losses at the taxpayers' expense by paying bonuses. That continues to be a complete misuse of my money.

I worked for 30 years as a main board director of a manufacturing business originally based in Bradford with a turnover of 500m. We had a bonus scheme which paid out up to 50 per cent of management salaries based on achievement of performance targets.

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Of course, in manufacturing, and almost all businesses other than banking, profits can only be recorded once they have been genuinely realised. Creating profits based on overvalued stocks in any business other than banking would have directors ending up in prison – quite rightly.

But there was one further and critical provision in our bonus scheme. If the business did not make a minimum required return for

shareholders, no bonus could be paid. And much as that might upset managers when occasionally enforced, no-one ever left as a result, nor complained unreasonably. The fact is, if profits are not earned, there is no money to pay a bonus. That is a harsh reality which cannot be escaped.

But Northern Rock, having got itself into such a precarious position by clear rank bad management and then been bailed out by the taxpayer, still has not understood this fundamental reality, and the Government shareholder does not appear to want to ensure appropriate stewardship of its assets on the taxpayers' behalf.

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Unless the myth is exploded, that employees have a right to a bonus which has not been earned, we remain doomed to seriously expensive and irresponsible failure.

Rural houses are for living in

From: David Bentley, Pickering.

FOR a while there have been a series of objections to the new tax

regime for holiday lettings.

You showed (Yorkshire Post, March 12) how young persons wishing to live and work in rural areas were severely disadvantaged due to lack of affordable housing. Perhaps one is affecting the other?

The tax advantages enjoyed by holiday lets up till now have meant that while they claim improvements against tax, this is not a benefit available to persons wishing to make a run-down property fit for permanent habitation.

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Furthermore, planning consents do appear to be more easily won for holiday cottages than for permanent dwellings.

Surely a house is for living in and not just a toy for those wealthy enough to afford it, to the detriment of younger persons and sustainability of rural communities?

History on the high street

From: John Goodchild, Drury Lane, Wakefield.

YOUR "From the Archive" photograph and description (Yorkshire Post, March 10) shows Normanton High Street with the electric tramway in 1906.

Normanton's population boom of the 1860s, from 563 in 1861 to 3,448 10 years later, was associated primarily with coal mining developments in adjoining townships.

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Mineworkers and their families congregated in housing in Normanton and Normanton Common, distinct communities. There was a considerable, but smaller, group of railway workers.

A velvet mill operated for a time on Church Lane, and there were brickworks and a large foundry, although the first and last of these failed. Large-scale employment of women in clothing factories was a 20th century development.