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The first hurdle is getting to the station in the first place

The opening sentence of John Judge’s article states that ‘you like to think the process of alleviating pressure on the passenger begins back at the station’ (May 2010 issue). To my mind, it starts much

further back and can influence a person’s decision as to whether they use rail at all. If you want to travel by

train, when you look up train times, do you know if the printed time table can be relied on? Do you know if the service is a punctual one? When getting to the station

– if by public transport – the above two criteria apply as well. If you are arrive by car, is there room in the car park? Is there free parking or are the charges reasonable? How long do you need to

Why dentists should offer ‘delay repay’

I enjoyed reading your article ‘Standing up for sitting down’ (May 2010 issue). Paul Clifton, as a transport journalist, and myself, as a retired railway employee of almost 40 years, understand the reasons why trains can sometimes be overcrowded with no immediate means to alleviate the problem. It is highly ironic that I had just started

reading your article when my telephone rang. It was my dentist, informing me that an appointment for later that day would have to be cancelled due to a ‘breakdown in the equipment’ and the fact that no mechanic would be available to attend and rectify it that day. I now have to wait almost five weeks for my treatment. I had already had this appointment cancelled three weeks earlier, again at very short notice, because ‘the dentist cannot come to work today’. At least your dentist friend got to his rugby match. I wonder what his reaction would have been, had he been told at Reading to come back

in five weeks’ time when more first class seats would be available! However, I do hope that he received a refund for the fact that having paid for first class travel, he had to stand. I know that when I was a customer relations manager, I would have given him substantial compensation and offered him a free first class ticket for another journey. My dental appointment is now running

eight weeks late. Such a delay on a rail journey is unheard of, and a delay of even eight hours would result in a full refund and substantial compensation.

I don’t expect that I shall receive any sort of

compensation for my delay. Perhaps this explains why dentists all seem to be very well off, whilst railway administrations and their staff generally are not!

AR Dance

Nottingham

get from the car park to the station? In my case it can be anything between three and six minutes, according to how full it is. We need to be happy with all these before we even enter the station!

John Edser Dipl Trans FCILT

Alsager Cheshire

Barriers misery

I take exception to John Judge’s statement that ‘most passengers spend just a few minutes in a station before boarding their train’ (May 2010 issue). Try boarding a train from

Norwich, John. Barriers may cut down on

fare dodgers, but before their installation, I could buy my ticket on the train. I’m now forced to buy

a ticket before my journey and have to stand in what is always a very long queue with never more than three staffed booths out of six open. Plus, the automatic ticket machines also

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