I was interested to read June Hutt’s letter (Grayling has no idea on public transport, August 17) as I travelled on the Cross Country service from York to Edinburgh Waverley last Friday.

My husband and I had been lucky to find seats and to keep them for the length of the journey. When the train first pulled in to York station (10 minutes late) I had been perplexed to find that the coach in which I had booked seats - Coach J - did not appear to be attached to the train.

I asked a disgruntled female member of staff where the coach was, only to be told: “There i’nt one”. On being pressed further she informed me that I would ‘just have to find a seat’.

We were lucky in that we found seats. Not so the people who joined the train at Darlington, Durham, Newcastle and Dunbar - they had to stand the whole length of each carriage.

No one could get past to go to the toilet, the refreshment trolley was unable to progress up and down the train and of course the ticket inspector was unable to come and check our tickets!

We were repeatedly informed that, due to technical problems, the train was travelling with only four carriages instead of eight but there was no offer of compensation and, just for good measure, the train was twenty minutes late into Waverley. Chris Grayling should be sacked.

Teresa Turner,

Whin Road,

Dringhouses, York

North subsidising South with rail travel

The Press has given much coverage recently to the MP for York Central bemoaning the increase in the price of regulated train tickets. The rises are not surprising given the chronic underinvestment over the last 40 years, the cost of fuel and the demands for ever higher salaries. But who pays? If ticket prices do not rise the taxpayer has to pick up the tab. You don’t get owt for nowt.

So what is fair? According to the Department for Transport factsheet for 2017, only two per cent of all trips in the UK are taken by rail and well over half of these are by daily commuters.

This means the vast majority of the UK population never or rarely board a train. We also have to consider that 64 per cent of all rail journeys either start or finish in London and that the Government subsidy for transport in London was £1,940 per head compared with £190 for Yorkshire and the Humber in 2016/17 (from IPPR North).

So we have a choice. Do the habitual users of trains in the south pay for the service they use or do the taxpayers of the north subsidise them to an even greater tune? As our MP jumps on the bandwagon she may wish to consider her constituents ahead of her political dogma.

Mike Huffington,

Walmgate, York

Can basic grammar

survive this change?

With reference to recent articles and letters on the subject of good or bad grammar (Nit-picking on grammar issues, Letters, August 17) may I add a couple of things which I find irritating?

I think it may be a trend among the younger folk to start a sentence with “Me and Jenny” (or whatever the name might be). I have also noticed that when asking for an item in a food shop they say (for example) “Can I get a meat pie?” The answer to that might be “No, I will get it for you and then you can have it”.

Language of course evolves and we have to expect changes all the time, but we can hope that basic grammar will survive.

Jean Frost,

Heworth,York

We need real debate

on safety of vaping

Is vaping safe?

Can there be a sensible debate on this please, because how do you evaluate what is safe when cigarettes have filters, but cigars do not, yet vaping is being promoted by the medical world as better than all these tobacco products?

Vaping still has a highly addictive nicotine substance which causes highs but restrictive arteries as a penalty aftermath.

What worries me is that the powers-that-be worship profits before people and that is not good for our wellbeing.

Until we alleviate the poverty and high tension living of today, retreat into our drug-induced worlds will still continue.

From a viewpoint beyond our own, what does that tell us of our present culture of development?

Phil Shepherdson,

Chantry Close,

York

Efficiency may be

answer to question

Having seen a TV interview with Lisa Winward on the award of the role of Chief Constable, I noted that she mentioned “efficiency”.

Having read the letter from Mr H F Perry (August 16) I would hazard a guess that this is the answer to his question as to how the PCC, Julia Mulligan, expects to get more out of less.

Peter Elliott,

Wetherby Road,

York