YEP Letters: November 22

Having some fun with the bus users?

John Turner, Leeds 12

yesterday I was waiting at a bus shelter and looked up at the screen, only to be told that I can go to Lotherton Hall to see some penguins.

Are WY Metro, the Combined Authority and Leeds City Council having some fun with us bus users? The nearest bus towards Lotherton Hall terminates over a mile away.

Are we going to get a bus that actually takes us to Lotherton Hall? Probably not. Can I ask whoever runs these pointless and expensive computer screens to stop taunting us with opportunities to look at captive wildlife when we can’t get there.

Perhaps the huge amount of public money frittered on these screens would be better spent on improving the bus services, so that we don’t feel like the captive wildlife you are obviously so keen we go to see.

A taste of the rush hour train nightmare

Mike Priestley, Bradford.

THE other afternoon, after attending a matinée performance at the Grand Theatre in Leeds, my wife and I congratulated ourselves on making it to the station in time to catch the 5.25pm Skipton train back to Shipley. Our delight turned out to be premature.

With five minutes to go to departure, the rush-hour train was packed. We managed to squeeze ourselves into the crowded square in the section between the doors. Quite a few other people followed.

I have travelled often on the London Underground over the years, but have never been on a train more crammed than this one.

A kindly man battled his way through from one of the seating areas to offer my wife his seat (we are in our 70s) which miraculously wasn’t occupied by someone else by the time she forced her way to it.

I followed, to stand over her holding tightly on to her coat lapel as we moved off for the mercifully brief journey.

There was nothing else to grip on to for support other than the window frame. These trains aren’t built for standing room only.

The number of rails and poles is inadequate. There are no straps to hang on to. Some of the passengers in the section between the doors were reaching up and supporting themselves with their fingertips in the rim of the air conditioning duct in the roof.

Apart from the discomfort of being crammed in like sardines, the atmosphere was unpleasantly stuffy (some people understandably don’t smell too fresh at the end of a long working day).

This is no way to expect passengers to travel, and to pay highly for it into the bargain.

I have every sympathy with those who must endure a daily commute in such conditions. I know of no plans to improve matters in the near future by adding more carriages or increasing the frequency of the trains.