I read with interest the comparison between British and French railway journeys (Race to the Riviera Evening Standard 14 June 2001). As someone who lives part of the time in London and part in Marseille, I am a frequent rail traveller in Britain and France. GNER which runs from London to North-East England and Scotland, offers a restaurant service which French railways cannot come near.

The country, which invented cordon bleu cuisine, should frankly be ashamed of the food offered by its nationalised rail service. French trains only run at speed on a few, specially designed tracks. Try travelling, say, from Toulouse to Toulon and you will wish you were on a British cross-country train.

Virgin train prices are about a quarter of those of SNCF for equivalent journeys unless you need to travel on totally flexible tickets at peak times.

You mention somewhat disparagingly, that Railtrack is pleading for £2billion. You forget that the French equivalent RFF, is in debt by some £14billion and, unless bailed out once more by the taxpayer, will go spectacularly bankrupt within a very short period.

By all means keep up the pressure on British railway companies but please don’t assume they are any worse than Continental ones.

Robert Stoodley, Shoreditch. E2