I am quite appalled by the new proposal submitted by National Express (All change, The Press, May 12). Now, as well as installing barriers, it intends to demolish our historic signal box.

Lower barriers may be visually more acceptable, but they address none of the needs expressed by the hundreds of York residents who officially opposed the initial plans.

The station is the normal route to the National Railway Museum and the road and path behind the station. There are many people who need to be seen on to the trains.

There are still pay-on-the-train services – National Express is not the only company to use York. The steam engines are a tourist attraction.

As for fare-dodgers, I can’t see any amount collected ever compensating for the millions to be spent on installing the barriers in the first place.

Vivien Flynn, Lucombe Way, York.

• The Comment in The Press on May 12 (Knives out for station plans?) adequately gives a résumé of the many objections by conservationists and similar.

National Express East Coast (NXEC) says it has taken note of the many objections arising from the barriers and accommodated them in a radical revision of the original plans, which is likely to be a harbinger for future rail travel, including using “green” energy efficiency.

It is expected that the various objectors will reserve judgment until the full plans are on view. Does this mean there could still be objections centred round the barriers, which appear to be only part of the project?

Hopefully this will not be the case, causing more delays and escalating the total expense.

NXEC, as with all public services, is charged with providing for millions of users, whose numbers are increasing, and putting on satisfactory services, plus keeping up to date with changing lifestyles and local circumstances.

Customers mostly require to get from A to B efficiently as circumstances allow, and do not particularly notice the architecture. They far outnumber the several hundreds of barrier protesters, for whom each placated objection, some of them personal, can give rise to another.

Eventually, York Station must be brought into line with the present and future needs of the travelling public. Barrier objections should not be a “barrier”.

J Beisly, Osprey Close, York.