Madam, - Cattle-boat culture has long been extinct on our ferries, but it prevails on our inter-city trains, except for our one showpiece, the Enterprise to Belfast. Compared with other countries as prosperous as we are told ours is, our train system is third-world. Backpackers can handle it. Others refuse to use it and prefer to clog up the roads with their cars.
Why, in this century, in order to get a seat, do we have to arrive at a station 50 minutes before departure - first to stand in a queue for a ticket, then to queue for a train? Should it not be possible to reserve a particular numbered seat over the telephone and pay by credit card? The Iarnród website tells us that this facility is "in course of development". Other countries have had it for decades.
To civilise the train service would surely cost a lot less than to build a few more kilometres of motorway, and reduce the need for it, especially now we have a decent taxi service to bring us around our destination city.
On holiday in Denmark I found "quiet" carriages like those Yvonne Pim (August 26th) discovered in England, where mobile phones are prohibited and even ordinary conversation is sotto voce. Children, of course, do not use these carriages, but they have their own "family" carriages specially designed for them. These are found even on the Copenhagen suburban lines.
- Yours, etc.,
BRIAN CROWLEY, Leinster Square, Dublin 6.