Sir, - Your article on trains in Ireland (The Irish Times, August 10th) was well timed. I read it while travelling from Belfast to Derry with Northern Ireland Railways. Investment and improvements in NIR are not just necessary but essential. The state of the train on which we travelled was absolutely disgraceful and the toilets were squalid.
When I asked a NIR official in Belfast about the time of the next train to Derry, he replied: "Take the bus, mate, it's faster and cleaner." It might even have been cheaper. We didn't take his advice - more's the pity. - Yours, etc.,
Trevor G. Barr, Warwick School, Warwick, England.