Packed trains

The excuse was a cracked line and a cancellation.

Where we were standing in between two carriages, a lady nearly fainted and we had to lie her down on the floor. Another lady, who was disabled, had to sit in the toilet. No staff were available the entire journey.

On our return journey on the fifth, it was just as bad with overcrowding, same excuses, and no staff. The train was going to Plymouth.

When we got off at Sheffield it was still packed and lots of people were trying to get on.

They must know how many passengers they have and should have put extra carriages on.

If that many people had been in a building of similar size it would have been closed down by the fire brigade or health and safety and been fined, yet the railway companies flaunt all the rules and get away with it.

All they offer are flimsy excuses and platitudes.

Also, if animals were transported like this they would be heavily fined.

AD Sedgwick

Pollution - crisis?

This is how the headline should have looked in The Star, (November6).

While we all recognise that air pollution is a strong current problem, to describe the situation in Sheffield as a “Crisis” is over-egging the pudding somewhat.

Furthermore air pollution has, in itself, never killed anyone.

Whilst a violent collision can be said to be the exclusive cause of an individual’s death, nobody is dying purely as a result of air pollution.

It could well have a significant impact on somebody who suffers from cardiovascular or cardiac diseases, but it’s likely that other factors, such as diet or exercise, played a part too; in addition to socio-economic circumstances.

So to state that 500 deaths in Sheffield are caused by air pollution is an intentionally misleading headline.

Not only that, the PM2.5 and NO2 pollution in Sheffield can come from many different places and industrial processes, many tens or hundreds of miles away.

Not everything can be laid at the door of the automobile.

The main sources are industry and power stations, road transport, residential, agriculture and shipping.

The ridiculous suggestion that stopping people from running their cars outside schools will alleviate the situation is juvenile.

Staggeringly large amounts of PM2.5 already exist in the air, most of them airborne. Fining some people for running their cars a little more each day would produce blindingly miniscule results, (unable to be measured and blown away on the slightest breeze).

Fine particulates and nitrogen oxides have been falling steadily for decades, (and still are), and are about a quarter of what they were in 1970. (DEFRA 2016).

As for the statement that “people creating the problem aren’t the same people who are suffering”. How is this to be remedied?

Next we’ll hear that motorists will have to ensure that some of their own exhaust gases must be channelled back into their vehicles.

That’s tongue in cheek of course, but the “Round Table” makes no comment about what can or will be done about the major industrial polluters.

Yes, there’s a problem – but a crisis? I don’t think so.

Mike Wilson

High Green

The wider approach

As reported in the Sheffield Star on Monday, November 6, we have an air pollution crisis not just in Sheffield but in every city and town in the UK.

But one way of limiting this pollution is just not to fine parants outside schools but to take a much wider approach.

As I see motorists by the hundreds in a week just sat there in their cars outside supermarkets and your local shops, who find that they need to keep the engine running while a family member is doing abit of shopping.

The times I’ve seen cars parked at my local Tesco Express.

More tham once I have seen three cars at a time just left with the engines idling.

And also what I find is why do you need to keep your car idling while you are playing with your smart phone?

Go down to any supermarket car park anytime of day or night and you will come across three, four or even five motorists just sat there in their cars and vans just playing with their phones.

Also taxi drivers need to also play there part too, as I often see them waiting to pick up their customers with their engines left running.

I just find it’s about time this council got a real grip on the size of this problem and started handing out fines to these inconsiderate motorists who pollute the air we breathe.

C Shirley

by email

Power to the people

After reporting potholes in my area of S13 over the past 20 years, we finally got word from the council that they are now due to resurface all the roads in our area... all except one that is.

Despite it having been patched up several times over the years, I was annoyed at the council’s decision to leave it off the list and took it upon myself to put a flyer through each householder’s letterbox asking them to show solidarity and complain to the council - it appears to have worked.

We have now been informed that this road will now be included.

So, well done to the residents of Spinkhill Avenue and well done to the council for listening to them.

Power to the people.

S13 resident

Ignorant pupils

I agree with everything David Renway said in his letter to The Star about those ignorant pupils on the bus. I travelled on that bus a few months ago and it was so bad I had to get off. It really was disgusting. Who do they belong to?

My generation was brought up through the Second World War. We had very little of anything, but lots of respect and manners. What are the school they attend going to do about it? And what are their parents going to do about it?

PS This bus travels down West Street into town.

Mrs K Shelton

Well done

What’s old misery guts mumping on about now?

Actually it’s high praise for whoever has arranged for the front of Globe Works to be floodlit at night. Council and occupier?

Well done, it brings out the classical frontage to great advantage.

An appreciative Ron, for once.