LEETERS SPECIAL :I wonder if it is realised just how many people use this service and what a lifeline it is for those of us living in more rural areas.

It is our only direct link to Eurostar and the only convenient link to Gatwick as well as central London.

I have a 95-year-old mother living in a home in West Sussex and this service means I can visit her and get back the same day, which I couldn't otherwise do. If the train ran half empty I could understand the reasons but as it is so well used it seems illogical, especially as this Government is theoretically in favour of greater use of public transport.

MRS D MARSHALL

Newtown

Trowbridge.

This service has been such a lifeline to people in towns along the route, as no doubt you know from the usage of the service.

The line will obviously remain open for freight so we are at a loss to understand why such a modest service for passengers cannot be maintained. It will mean more people will take cars to the outskirts of London before boarding a suburban link to the city; surely this is the very thing the government wishes to avoid.

MRS I MILLWARD,

Newtown,

Bradford on Avon.

Since this service was introduced we have used it frequently, sometimes to cross London to another terminus, more often for a day in London. It is a most convenient way of getting to and from central London or the City.

While waiting on the platform at Bradford on Avon we often see friends or neighbours, many of them also going to London for the day. The general opinion has been that it was a most useful service.

We are dismayed to learn that the service may be withdrawn. If only the people who decide these things could have seen the packed trains, the apologetic notices at stations: 'Sorry, fully booked'.

This service ought not to be scrapped.

J & D GRIFFITH,

Christchurch Road,

Bradford on Avon.