News

Dear Editor,

I read with amazement that £50 million is being budgeted for make-overs of some of the shabbiest stations in the UK.

This includes Clapham Junction and Manchester Victoria, two of our busiest stations and therefore they should be two of our best stations.

Where is the sense in letting these and many other stations fall into disrepair in the name of saving money only then to have to pay out large sums of money to repair these wrecks?

One of the reasons that our stations are getting into such a bad state is that a lot of them are not manned full time - and in some cases not at all - and those that do work from them have no pride in their place of work.

Of course this is not all stations and some are still kept very well, but they are only the minority.

Firstly start making sure that all stations are fully manned and that the workforce look after them, this would decrease unemployment and save these sort of large figures having to be spent at a later date, and of course it would also make them safer for the travelling public.

This short sightedness does not only extend to the railways, one man operated buses are another problem, especially those that travel to and through busy town centres.

Even with passes and oyster cards these buses stop at stops sometimes for several minutes causing traffic to build up and also causing pollution.

So if the government are as environmentally friendly as they make out, why do they not bring back conductors on these main routes, again this would take people of the dole queues and also make travelling by bus safer and of course speed up traffic, reducing pollution and fuel usage, ah but that would be too simple why have any foresight!

Mr D.Wiffen
Bexley
Kent