I'll take the trains, thanks

Brian Cooke, chairman of London TravelWatch and a board member of Passenger Focus, whatever that is, has moaned to the Times about a deal whereby £29 million will be spent by the admittedly grim First Great Western on a better service, including new carriages on the dismal line that I use every morning. (The trains, it must be said, were even worse when they were operated by Wessex Trains before FGW won the franchise.) Has Mr Cooke, who presumes to speak for us, ever asked the commuters in Bath, Keynsham or Bristol who suffer from the absence of such carriages whether they would prefer the money to disappear into Treasury coffers as a fine, or to be used to provide more trains? Somehow, I don't think so.