I WONDER if I am the only reader to have noticed that over the past two years, the reliability, punctuality and quality of accommodation in GNER trains between York and London and Newcastle has been declining.

Delays of more than an hour are now routine, the trains are smaller and more crowded, seat reservations are often not provided and the train staff are unable to control the antisocial behaviour of other passengers (especially the use of mobile phones and Walkmans in the so-called "quiet carriages").

Meanwhile, fares have been going up relentlessly.

In stark contrast, Virgin has been steadily improving. When I started making regular journeys to Newcastle in June 2001, the GNER trains were usually reliable and offered a reasonable standard of accommodation, while the Virgins were old, decrepit, overcrowded and almost always late, if they weren't cancelled. Now I find that the opposite is true.

When I recently used Virgin for a weekend trip to Truro, the train covered the seven-hour, 400 mile journey bang on time in both directions, and the ticket was actually cheaper (£107) than when I made the same journey last summer (£128). I never, ever thought I'd find myself saying this, but it seems that Richard Branson really has been learning how to run a railway.

Dr Leo Enticknap,

Ingram House,

Bootham, York.

Updated: 11:08 Wednesday, July 30, 2003