Please tell John Speller, the political nobody who visited Croydon last week to ride on one of the almost empty Tramlink trams, that one of the benefits of living in Croydon is that Croydon is NOT on the Tube network.

Here in Croydon we have trains that:

a) travel above the ground, making them easier to escape from in an emergency;

b) are much faster than the pathetically slow Underground trains; and

c) are generally far less crowded than Tube trains.

It is hoped that if the Tube trains do escape from the East London line, they will not obstruct the (fast) overground trains, which currently go non-stop between London Bridge and East Croydon in less than 15 minutes.

The only reassuring thing about the Dispatches Down the Tube programme on Channel 4 (shown on Sunday, December 2) is that as politicians promised London more investment in the Tube network from mid-2000 and still haven't delivered by the end of 2001, then the promise to blight Croydon with Tube links by 2006 won't be delivered until at least 2010.

JIM BUSH

Selsdon

December 5, 2001 17:30