Letters to The Editor

Dear Sir,
With reference to the ongoing correspondence on the vexed subject of CET so graphically illustrated by the charming photo on the back of the last newsletter, I recall a correspondence with the late lamented British Rail on the same subject at Paddington Station where the conditions in summer were of Third World quality. Even the hideous biological digestor mats do nothing for the innocent bystander at the level crossing who is sprayed by the discharge of a passing train. Not for nothing were they known in my youth as "Bog Carts".

Surely the point to be made in this debate is that if a proposal were to be made for the first time that trains should be allowed to discharge raw sewerage along the track, such a proposal would be met with hoots of derision and rejected out of hand.
A ludicrous grotesque suggestion.
Is it therefore not self-evident that this practice cannot be allowed to continue?
It certainly is to me.

Yours sincerely, Sam Kendon.

Sir,
The front page story in Wednesday's Highland edition usefully aired the laudable ambitions to improve rail services south from Inverness and on the West Highland lines. Strangely, there was nothing about the long overdue speed up and capacity increase required between Aberdeen and Inverness.

We now know why, as the even bigger story broke today (Thursday) in the unlikely source of the Standard Grade Mathematics exam paper. It read "A Sprinter train travels at an average speed of 144 kilometres per hour. The train takes 1 hour 15 minutes to travel between Dingwall and Aberdeen. Calculate the distance between Dingwall and Aberdeen."

This revelation was helpfully illustrated by a picture of a high speed train, not a sprinter. ScotRail have already been waiting for 13 years for this line to be improved. May we trust that this exciting step forward will be the first project for the new Transport Minister please?

Yours etc.
Gerry O'Price