CARS ACROSS THE CHANNEL
SIR,—Mr. Leslie Adrian is surely a bit wide of the mark when he says that the British Railways Car Ferry Service is `cheap' (Spectator, January 23).
For many years the charges made by this monopoly for all their cross-Channel services have been a dis- grace,•and those for cars are particularly outrageous. To take Mr. Adrian's own example, it will, cost a family of three (two adults and one child) £22 4s. to make the return trip across the Channel with their small car, and for a slightly larger car with a cara- van the total rises rapidly to well over £40—a for- midable addition to the cost of a camping holiday which may well double it.
Some years ago when I urged the RAC to protest at these charges, I was told that nothing could be done as French port dues were the trouble, but there has been no sign of any reductions since the devalua- tion of the franc.
The two great motoring organisations are obviously very much to blame for their only too typically in- active attitude to this problem—but it seems a pity that the Spectator, too, should accept the position so uncritically.—Yours faithfully,
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