MADAM – Having recently experienced the efficiency and simple pricing of the publicly owned Spanish railway system, I now despair of ever being able to travel regularly in an environmentally sustainable way in most of this country.

While local train Commuters are being asked to swallow price increases well above the rate of inflation for a privately operated ‘service’ which meets the needs of few of us, the Coalition plans to re-privatise the one reliable, profitable, publicly owned rail service: The East Coast Mainline.

It defies logic to see this as an economic option. Over the last few years, this highly successful business has ploughed many millions of pounds back into the Treasury.

This comes at a time when, in order to find planned improvements to the ailing NHS, the leader of the Coalition has just promised that if his party were to be is re-elected in May 2015, benefits for those struggling to make ends meet will be cut, so making commuting even less affordable for the low paid.

It seems to be about anything but running a social railway for the benefit of the public.

Quite apart from the need for a sustainable and accessible transport system, I really don’t feel comfortable allowing such an uneven distribution of wealth to continue.

Dorothy Hursthouse

Bussage