Thank you, Lizzie Enfield (Argus, March 27).

"You'll have to get a train to London and then get a train from Waterloo to Winchester" - that was Railtrack information to a Brighton passenger, later corrected by another member of staff. There is a direct service from Brighton.

The Government is planning a new national railway network, mainly of tracks to the north for Eurostar. What is happening along the South Coast? Channel ports and resorts have Victorian branch lines into London. The coast has a disjointed shuttle service - all change and delay at Brighton terminus.

Channel ports need a modern railway, from Ashford to Penzance, otherwise the South Coast will remain an economic backwater with parking and delivery problems becoming more impossible to solve. Is it better to have 400 lorries on the road than one modern freight train carrying the same equivalent tonnage?

-John Stanaway, Lorna Road, Hove