Letters: Travellers of all ages will lose out if rail ticket offices are …
SIR – On Monday I was at Birmingham New Street station and walked past the large ticket office (Letters, July 11[1]), which was packed with customers of various ages, including several young passengers with bikes. The queue stretched out into the main concourse.
I’d bought my tickets at the excellent office at Crewe, plus one for a forthcoming journey to London. The knowledgeable person at the desk – like Maggie at Charles Moore’s local station (Comment, July 11[2]) – managed to save me a considerable sum over the online prices I’d found. I was also given valuable advice about “open” tickets and travel times.
Do the managers making the proposals to close all these ticket offices actually visit the stations and watch what’s happening? It seems unlikely. Apart from anything else, it’s an avoidable PR disaster.
Peter HollowayTarporley, Cheshire
SIR – The proposed mass closure of rail ticket offices in England will have a hugely detrimental impact on blind and partially sighted people’s ability to buy tickets, arrange assistance and – critically – travel independently.
Ticket offices are not just about selling tickets. They provide a reliable first point of contact for many kinds of staff assistance, such as arranging sighted guidance through the station and safely on to the train, to advising on changes to a passenger’s journey.
The Government claims it wants to “bring staff out from behind the glass”, but in truth it risks leaving blind and partially sighted people behind a new barrier. Modernisation of our railways doesn’t just mean apps and touchscreens; it means inclusivity and not leaving anyone behind.
Matt Stringer Chief executive officerRoyal National Institute of Blind PeopleLondon N1
SIR – When I worked in the booking office in my home-town station, many of the questions I was asked had nothing to do with trains. Rather, they were things like: where is the nearest cash point? Where is St Joan of Arc’s church? How do I get to Birdworld? Is the National Gallery open on Good Friday?
Closing these offices is a bad idea – especially for the old and vulnerable, and anyone who struggles with a smartphone.
Frank TurnerFarnham, Surrey
SIR – Every time I travel on the London Underground I simply present my bank card at the turnstile. That should be the case at most railway stations for travel on commuter lines.
It should be feasible to simply retain a ticket office at a hub station. If ticket inspectors were less officious, you could even buy your ticket from them. Slowly but surely everyone will get used to the new ways.
Jonathan Williams Sleaford, Lincolnshire
Hunt’s pension plan
SIR – Your report, “Hunt reforms aim to boost pensions by £1k” (July 11[3]), refers to the Chancellor’s “voluntary compact” with some pension funds to invest more in smaller UK companies. In fact, the extra £1,000 per annum requires arithmetic gymnastics concerning the retirement of an 18-year-old who is starting out on their career today.
If the Chancellor thinks that, half a century hence, such small increments will matter, and/or that the best he can do is attempt to fool the public with this sort of word-spinning, it suggests that he is otherwise without any effective idea how to repair Britain’s economy.
A W FoxLondon W6
SIR – The political assassination by our financial masterminds of Liz Truss on the grounds of her alleged financial stupidity now looks less than straightforward, given the path to ruin on which her Treasury replacement is taking us.
Tim BradshawUxbridge, Middlesex
Erdogan’s new tone
SIR – The change in Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s approach to Sweden’s application to join Nato (report, July 11[4]) speaks volumes for his judgment of Vladimir Putin’s changed position following the Wagner Group revolt.
The return of the Azov commanders to Ukraine from Turkey is a further indication of Mr Erdogan’s assessment that Putin is at least diminished, if not finished. After many months of sitting on the fence, Mr Erdogan has decided that sticking with Nato and backing Ukraine is the better course.
Phil CoutieExeter, Devon
Tackling migration
SIR – Kenneth Clarke’s article (“We must give the Rwanda plan a chance”, Comment, July 10[5]) should be required reading for Gary Lineker, Archbishop Justin Welby and all members of the House of Lords.
More than a year has now passed since the Rwanda plan was announced and, as he points out, not a single credible alternative has been put forward. The numbers have become impossible to contemplate: nearly 700 migrants on one day alone last week.
Unless the critics can come up with an alternative plan to prevent this illegal trade in people trafficking, they should stop objecting and give those who actually have to deal with this problem a chance to prove that their scheme can work.
Wesley HallamBatheaston, Somerset
Stars and stripes
SIR – I was pleased to see the King wearing a pinstripe suit along with a tie with stars to meet Joe Biden. A nice sartorial touch from His Majesty.
Marguerite Beard-Gould Deal, Kent
Cordial connoisseur
SIR – I suggest that the best elderflower cordial (Saturday, July 8[6]) is of the homemade variety.
In our corner of north London, there is an abundance growing in May and June, easily distinguishable by its scent. The cordial recipe is simple and ultimately very rewarding.
For those wishing to be adventurous, it can also be used to make elderflower jelly.
Jane CooperLondon N19
NHS staff emergency
SIR – Junior NHS medical staff have weathered the Covid storm and its aftermath, mostly without the professional experience to prepare them emotionally. They bear the full student debt, have experienced attritional pay scales, and now see respected senior professionals retiring early, often exhausted physically and emotionally.
They cannot save for property, but see peers in different careers who have less debt and are able to ascend the pay and housing scales. These were some of the brightest and most caring students of their year groups.
A positive experience at junior levels encourages loyalty, respect and professional development. It is therefore a priority to invest in the medical staff who started at university within the past 10 years. As a minimum, their student debt needs to be waived, and other incentives considered. This is not an issue the Government can ignore; it is an emergency that requires immediate action. A healthy economy needs a healthy workforce.
Dr Sara MotionRetired paediatric consultant Stroud, Gloucestershire
Trans terminology
SIR – Surely the risk of offence being caused by words such as vagina and womb to a very small minority of transitioning people is far outweighed by the huge number of women who are appalled by the new vocabulary designed to avoid upsetting this group (“Charity calling vagina a ‘bonus hole’ is slated by women”, report, July 10[7]).
It seems that the hard-fought struggle for female equality is being subversively eroded. Women need to start shouting very loudly that we have vaginas, not “front holes”.
Susan WaltersBristol
Cricket’s pace problem
SIR – It isn’t only in tennis that spectators might like a speedier rate of play (Letters, July 11[8]). Test cricket fans would like to see the over rate much closer to the once-achieved 90 overs a day. The aim should be 15 per hour.
Anne JappieCheltenham, Gloucestershire
SIR – Why does every player at Wimbledon have to make the clenched fist sign to signify each personal victory? A thumbs-up would be a welcome change.
Kevin PlattWalsall, Staffordshire
Smoked out of church by excessive incense
In the clouds: a 13th-century fresco in the Church of our Lady in Bruges, Belgium
Credit: alamy
SIR – The Bishop of Lichfield seems unaware of the link between incense and acute respiratory diseases (report, July 7). I suffer from mild asthma. Some years ago, our village church installed a vicar who was very “high church”.
The incense was swung with gusto and I started wheezing. We didn’t go back. At the time we were living on the A20, the main road from Folkestone and Dover used by much cross-Channel traffic. That didn’t affect my chest at all.
Janet MillikenFolkestone, Kent
SIR – The use of incense at Ely Cathedral ended in 1747, according to Dom Gregory Dix’s magisterial Shape of the Liturgy, because “Dr Thos Green, a finical man, tho’ a very worthy one, and who is always taking snuff up his nose, objected to it under pretence that it made his head ache”.
This was followed by a footnote: “The devastating effects of incense on the physical system of many modern English Protestants are well known. Curiously enough, there are no complaints of them from the 17th-century English puritans, and they were totally unknown to the Jews and pagans of antiquity, or to the Christians of the first 1,500 years. Dr Thomas Green appears to be the first recorded sufferer, and deserves to be sympathetically commemorated as such.”
Rev Peter KettleLondon SW19
Labour’s disastrous plan for private schools
SIR – Labour intends to remove the charitable status of private schools. It claims that this would allow it to spend 1 per cent more on state education.
Such a move would have a disastrous effect on those children – well off and poor – who need either the bursaries or specialist education that the private sector can offer. It would not guarantee extra funds for the state sector. If you are part of the 94 per cent who do not give their children a private education, you might think this is of no concern to you, but such an assumption is wrong (“Labour’s tax raid on private schools ‘will force out 40,000 pupils’”, report, July 11[9]).
Anthony SinglehurstLondon SE11
SIR – Reading about Labour’s plans, my concern is for the education of the many children of military service personnel – and probably diplomatic and other families – who are required to move abroad, as well as around this country on short-term postings.
Obviously, it is unwise to move such pupils every two or three years within the state system, so the only recourse is full boarding in private schools. Currently, there is a scheme for subsidising, though not fully covering, the cost. This must be borne in mind, and I hope consideration will also be given to adjusting the subsidy to reflect the rising fee rates.
E Davies Corsham, Wiltshire
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References
- ^ Letters, July 11 (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ Comment, July 11 (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ July 11 (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ report, July 11 (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ “We must give the Rwanda plan a chance”, Comment, July 10 (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ Saturday, July 8 (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ “Charity calling vagina a ‘bonus hole’ is slated by women”, report, July 10 (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ Letters, July 11 (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ “Labour’s tax raid on private schools ‘will force out 40,000 pupils’”, report, July 11 (www.telegraph.co.uk)
- ^ here (secure.telegraph.co.uk)