Dreaming of BR
Sir: Matthew Parris (Another voice, 26 May) asserts that `few of us would now dream of going back to British Rail'. Many of us dream of little else. Those among us, for example, who are used to standing for our entire journey every day, whose trains skip stops in order to arrive at the final station on time, who miss a connection and cannot take the next train because our ticket is only valid for one company, who are refused even nugatory compensation when things go wrong because the various companies pass the buck, or who notice that trains up to 10 minutes late are recorded as 'on time' (BR allowed five minutes).
Ken Bishop Liverpool Sir: Matthew Parris goes a step too far in congratulating John Major for privatising the railways. The operating model was botched, passenger fares have risen exponentially, and far from the public sector having divested itself of an enormous undertaking, we now find ourselves paying vast subsidies to private companies to provide a poor service. The railways are not a commercial undertaking, but a vital and key strategic part of our economy which was sadly let down by their privatisation.
Andrew Deveney Back Road, Suffolk
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