TRANSPENNINE train conductor David Barker let the cat out of the bag in gleefully asserting that "When you pay your rail fare, you are paying for a journey, not a seat" (Letters, March 20).

Interestingly, that's not the approach to customer service taken by car manufacturers, long-distance coach operators and airlines.

Train companies may feel that being able to sit down during a journey of several hours' duration is a luxury extra, but for some reason it is considered a basic necessity on every other form of long-distance transport.

Yet again, the rail industry shows that it is offering a 19th century technology, which, in its current form, is incapable of meeting the transport needs of a 21st century economy and society.

That situation is unlikely to change as long as attitudes like Mr Barker's hold sway, ie telling us that we should shut up, stop complaining and be grateful for the chance to pay rip-off prices in return for the privilege of being crammed shoulder-to-shoulder in a modern-day cattle wagon for several hours.

Leo Enticknap,

Ingram House,

Bootham, York.

Updated: 10:22 Wednesday, March 22, 2006