ON Saturday July 17, my friend and I travelled by train and Metrolink from Northwich to Bury.

What should have been an enjoyable trip was ruined by the behaviour of other passengers.

On the Metrolink, a gang of (obligatory baseball-capped) loud-mouthed youths virtually took over the carriage, commandeering a whole seat each with their feet up - should Martin Bell even consider this mode of transport he should be advised to wear something rather more practical than a white suit.

On the return train, which left Altrincham at approximately 5.40pm, another gang of older males sat blatantly smoking in a non-smoking carriage, swigging booze and flinging their empty bottles through the window.

I informed the travelling ticket-collector of the situation when I alighted at Northwich and he replied to the effect that nothing could be done as the police refused to come out.

In these days of mobile phones etc, surely something could have been done. The ticket-collector would be aware of the destination of these people. There are Railway Police aren't there? Why couldn't they have been notified and been waiting wherever these characters got off?

Am I alone in my despair at the way anti-social people seem to rule the roost?

It's all very well encouraging people to use public transport, but if my experience is typical, I don't blame anybody for clinging to their car.

INTIMIDATED PASSENGER

Name and address

supplied.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.