SIR,—Mr. Rutter begins his complaint about the French Railways car-ferry
with the phrase, 'Mr' Cyril Ray and others have had some harsh things to say about British Railways cross-Channel services. The implication seems to be that the French do these things very much better.' Others, I recall, followed my lead by writing to you about their own horrible experiences, but I have written only once in your columns about a British Railways night-service ship —that to the Hook—and never about any of their cross-Channel services. Nor did I make any com- parison with any of the French cross-Channel services: I have no experience of them, and needed no comparisons to write about conditions on British Railways 'Hook Continental' and night-service ship, which were bad not by relative but by absolute standards, as I tried to make clear at the time. I have experienced British Railways cross-Channel night-ferry services, more than once, car-ferry and train-ferry, but have never been able to find the words in which to write about them. Suffice it to say that only the other day I was invited by the editor of a BTC magazine to write an article about Brussels: I was to cross by the British Railways night-ferry and stay for five days at the best
all at the expense of BTC, and receive as well what is for me a quite substantial fee. My reply was that in the ordinary way the fee would be highly
acceptable, but that if I had to cross by the night ferry, it would have to be doubled. As I expected,
the editor declined, and I heaved a sigh of relief: even at an extra fifty guineas I was far from looking forward to the trip. London, WI hotel, Mot RAY
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