LETTER: Bus ticket solution to cancelled trains

I have long thought that, when trains are cancelled or unable to run for whatever reason, there is a quicker and better solution than a) doing nothing or b) organising an emergency coach service which wastes additional time.

My solution is simple: affected train passengers, on production of their rail tickets, should be able to travel on normal bus services at no additional cost; Northern Rail would then settle up with the bus companies at a later date. There is a great discrepancy between the train and bus fares between Whalley and Clitheroe; a train return costs £1.40, yet a single fare on the bus is £2.50. That disparity should also be addressed, but I daresay someone, somewhere has already kicked the matter into the long grass.

If I am elected as a Lancashire county councillor next May, this is precisely the sort of issue I will raise on behalf of my local community. In so many aspects of modern life, people deal in problems and allow themselves to be engulfed in negative thinking. There are still some people around who adopt a ‘can-do’ approach, but I suspect we are a dying breed.

Simon Kerins

Chairman of UKIP Ribble Valley