YORK is now served for the Scarborough train route by First, a company which pushes its luck with the slogan 'Transforming Travel'.

My travel to the cricket festival was transformed on Saturday by just less than an hour's standing in an intolerably crowded 9.39 train. It was crowded because this service (from Lime Street, Liverpool) consisted of two carriages only, an absurdity. This was peak time, at the start of a Bank Holiday weekend.

The 5.47 train back in the evening had five carriages, far in excess what was needed. Because people going to a resort on a weekend do not return on the same day in equal numbers it was half empty.

An additional grief, although not one laid at the company's feet, was the presence of so many children under five occupying seats which involved no payment, while paying adults, some in their sixties, swayed and hung on.

Who wants to risk a shouting row by raising the matter? But a railway company might usefully make a voiced-over guidance statement, and keep repeating it.

Edward Pearce,

Ryedale House,

Thormanby, York.

Updated: 09:48 Friday, September 02, 2005