SO, GNER describes a four-hour delay as a "very bad day" (August 6). I wonder how the company described the journey on the 5pm fast train to Edinburgh on July 11.

I boarded this at King's Cross by the skin of my teeth a minute or so before departure time.

Between 5.20pm and 7.10pm passengers intending to catch the 5.30pm, 6pm and 6.30pm (and perhaps the 7pm) boarded my train. At 7pm we were informed that a power cable had come down on the line at Grantham and we were fifth in a queue to get past this point.

At 7.10pm we set off. I arrived home at 2.20am. My journey in this cattle truck from hell had taken the same time as that from my daughter's apartment in Manhattan to York.

Major John FitzGerald

Heworth Village,

York.

Updated: 10:17 Wednesday, August 08, 2001