25 FEBRUARY 2006, Page 31

Public transport pollutes

From Bruce van Biene

Sir: Your correspondent Richard Laming (Letters, 11 February) believes that airlines benefit from an irrational tax policy since they do not have to pay fuel duty. This makes them no different from most other forms of public transport, certainly in the UK.

Bus and train companies are either exempt from or can reclaim fuel duty, which is why train-operating companies can afford to let their diesel locomotives idle for hours at railway termini, filling the concourses (and the lungs of their customers) with thick blue smoke.

Bruce van Biene Bracknell, Berks