16 JUNE 2001, Page 31

Computer error

From Mr Jo Johnson Sir: Fair enough if your magazine can't stand the euro. But deliberately to use computers that can't read euro signs — see the erroneous substitution of francs for euros throughout my article last week on the new French TGV ('Last tango in Paris') — is taking things too far.

So, just to be clear: when Parisians swan down to Marseilles in three hours, their tickets will cost 62 euros (£39), as I wrote, not 62 francs (£39), as, extraordinarily, it managed to appear in print. Equally, the French railway system's debts and losses were all expressed in euros when they left my computer, not the francs that made them appear much less horrendous than they actually are.

Jo Johnson

Paris