IT is cold comfort for the North West's travelling public that two of Britain's multi-millionaires are getting together to run our rail links with Scotland and southern England.

The record of Virgin Express has been disastrous, and the operations of Stagecoach in the south have been little better.

Moreover, Stagecoach have been criticised by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission for being "predatory, deplorable and against the public interest."

Surely, even the new Labour Government can see that privatised public transport is inefficient and incapable of providing the services necessary for a modern, industrialised society, anxious to diminish the problems caused by burgeoning car ownership.

Renationalisation has to be the way forward, without letting the millionaires strip the assets, or rip off the profits en route!

ROGER BANNISTER, UNISON National Executive Council (Personal Capacity), Admin Road, Kirkby.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.