GREEN Express Railtours have run special trains for 16 years from the north of England and rely on the postal network to serve our passengers.

Over the first 15 years, I always defended the service provided by the Post Office; weighing up the number of items delivered with the rare error that was suffered, the system worked.

However, the past 12 months have seen the service dissolve into one that you would expect to find in a Third World country.

The first problems occurred when mail was taken off the railways and put on to the roads. Mail cannot be moved as fast, safely or securely by road over long distances like rail, and the use of contract labour and hired-in vehicles is greatly adding to the risk of mail getting lost.

Secondly, morale has suffered noticeably in the past 12 months with experienced Royal Mail staff leaving, continuity dropping, fewer people now have a 'regular' delivering their mail, as rounds are swapped and changed.

Thirdly, the utter chaos of one daily delivery as the public clamours for an early service, not an afternoon delivery, causes friction and further saps staff morale.

This is the first year we have suffered the return of correctly delivered items and items taking weeks to get delivered.

What is even more worrying is that Royal Mail now do not take poor service as a serious problem. A standard reply is sent and a mention made of an organisation called Postwatch.

This, apparently, was set up to look after the interests of postal users, but such has been the number of complaints they have received that they now have a massive backlog to go through and even then they have no authority to force Royal Mail to take action.

Nick Harvey,

Green Express Railtours,

Byram Arcade,

Westgate, Huddersfield.

Updated: 11:03 Friday, November 12, 2004