YOUR pro-GNER eulogy in the leader column (July 9) is entirely at odds with my regular, but reluctant, experiences as a passenger with them since I moved to York in 1999.

Here are two recent examples chosen at random, but which in my experience are pretty typical of the kind of service their "customers" have to endure.

Sunday, May 2, 6.30pm from King's Cross to York: delayed by over two hours. Tuesday, June 29, 8pm from King's Cross to York: arrived 93 minutes late.

Why is it that in the last year, none of the Virgin trains I have travelled on between York and Newcastle have been more than a few minutes late, and that furthermore the Virgin trains are all clean, modern and comfortable?

Despite all this talk of Mallards, the GNER trains I've been on recently are the same tatty old ones they have always been.

Why is it that GNER seems to have a policy of doing nothing to address offensive and antisocial behaviour by a mindless minority of passengers, so much so that there was a riot on one of their trains last autumn?

And why is it that the main long-distance rail operator serving York fails to receive any public subsidy, unlike any other long-distance operator?

Shouldn't we get a discount on our council tax to reflect this state of affairs? It's a pity that Virgin have pulled out of the franchise bid, given that their service has a four-year track record of continual improvement, while GNER seems to have been going in exactly the opposite direction.

We need a genuine choice of operators between York and London, such as exists between York and Newcastle, so that we have the option of voting with our wallets for the better one.

Leo Enticknap,

Ingram House

Bootham,

York.

Updated: 09:56 Monday, July 12, 2004