MY WIFE and I recently took a foreign holiday and decided to use public transport to get to the airport. We booked return tickets on National Express from Exeter to Gatwick and at £23.50 each it probably worked out cheaper than the cost of the petrol alone had we used our car.

Calculating the true total cost of using the car (43p a mile) plus car parking then the bus fares came to no more than 10 per cent of this.

The buses were double-glazed; air conditioned, fast and comfortable, served refreshments and arrived pretty well on time. Minus points were insufficient leg room, the lack of a steward on the return bus, a driver on the bus from Heathrow to Gatwick, whose rudeness to foreigners coming in to the country was truly appalling (not National Express), and some undesirables hanging about the café at Heathrow. Five police officers drove past in a van but could not be bothered to get out.

We had to get a friend to run us up in the car to Exeter (no public transport at 4am) but were able to travel home on our return using the scheduled Western National service. On balance we will do the same again next time we fly from Heathrow or Gatwick.

What struck me very forcibly, however, were the massive traffic problems at all times on the M3, M4 and M25. Our driver weaved his way through them in a most skilful fashion. The vast majority were cars with only one occupant. It is here that the major traffic problems lie, not in the heart of the Devon countryside. Yet it is country folk who pay the most for their petrol who are, in many cases, both the lowest paid and with the lack of any viable alternative.

Something must be done about traffic in big cities but surely it is not beyond the wit of this government to target the problem most accurately. Why not a second road tax for all vehicles entering the area inside the M25 and perhaps smaller areas in other equally congested cities. A 'day glow orange tax disc' would be easy enough to spot and would involve no expensive electrical installation.

Yes there would be anomalies but certainly no worse than now. Or is this solution just too simple for the most affluent region of Europe?

Richard Leonard

Menfreya

Thorndon Cross