Denise Elliot highlights the lack of competition between rail and road (Letters, July 30).

For comfort there is nothing to beat a non-overcrowded train journey - fewer stops, no roundabouts, traffic congestion and fumes.

Sadly you have to be rich to travel by train as fares are several times higher than coaches and buses.

Now buses have been deregulated and private companies operate trains there seems no way to stop extortionate fares increases.

The new trains have become more passenger-hazardous than buses, because they have no separate goods compartments, so passengers face injury clambering over luggage, prams, pets, shopping and bicycles left in sliding door vestibules.

They seem to have been designed for short commuter journeys, similar to London Underground trains, for maximum passenger capacity.

-John Stanaway, Hove