YOUR feature about attacks on bus drivers and passengers (Bolton Evening News, May 15) comes as a timely reminder that travel difficulties are suffered by more sections of the population than the frustrated motorists who take up so much of your Letters page, and the local rail passengers who complain about overcrowding.

Only last week, a new report claimed that under-investment in buses -- as compared to railways and roads -- represents discrimination against the poor.

So far as crime and disorder are concerned, we have the British Transport Police, a dedicated force with full police powers, dealing specifically and exclusively with crime on the railways. Greater Manchester's Metrolink train service was established with its own 28-strong police force, jointly-funded by the Passenger Transport Authority and Greater Manchester Police.

Now London Mayor, Ken Livingston, is seeking to establish a dedicated force to police London's buses, while provincial bus drivers complain that requests for police assistance result, as often as not, in a response which comes too late or not at all.

We not only need a separate police unit to deal exclusively with buses, we also need CCTV cameras mounted on the outside of buses as well as inside. These would not only deter and/or identify vandals, but would also ensure effective enforcement of bus-lane regulations.

I heard John Prescott promising such external cameras 10 years ago when he was opposition transport spokesman, but nothing has happened except on a few London routes.

I hope these things will be borne in mind by transport union leaders while they are, as you report, lobbying the Government for better protection.

Allan Horsfall

(Address supplied)