Charles Patmore is spot-on (Letters, 6 February). People will be encouraged to use services if they think they are safe. In July, just before “freedom day” in England, I wrote to the managing director of LNER, urging him to make masks a condition of carriage, or at least provide mask-only carriages, as Mr Patmore suggests. I suggested that no one was going to be attracted to trains by not having to wear a mask, and many would be deterred. Reply came there none.
Since then, my wife and I have made three trips from Edinburgh to London. Previously we would have gone on the train. Instead, all three journeys were made by car – not good for us, the environment or LNER’s finances.
Adam Rennie
Edinburgh
• A church in Sheffield (St Mary’s, Walkley) does exactly what Charles Patmore wants: you sit on one side if you want two-metre separation, masks etc, and on the other if you don’t mind dispensing with such rules. I expect it’s draughty enough anyway to blow any bugs away.
Keith Burchell
Derby
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