I was surprised to read the recent comment in the BEN by Highways chief Cllr Jack Foster who suggested that irate motorists caught up in traffic jams during roadworks on main roads should take the train to work. This theory is fine, provided you live close to a station and work 'office hours'. Many people today, like me, work shifts and can only travel to work by car, especially if they work in Manchester for example.

I live in Harwood and work in the centre of Manchester. My journey time by car is around 30 minutes and is outside the normal rush-hour periods. Last December, I was forced to use public transport to travel to work. At that time, I was on a 2pm-10.15pm shift and had to leave home at 12.05pm to catch the 12.15pm bus to Moor Lane bus station. I then had to walk across town to the railway station for the 12.53pm train to Manchester Piccadilly arriving at 1.19pm. This was followed by a 20-minute walk from Piccadilly Station to my place of work in Ardwick, giving me 30 minutes to recover before starting work.

My journey home was even more arduous. After walking through one of the roughest areas in Manchester, I then had to wait on a windswept Platform 14 at Manchester Piccadilly station until 10.51pm for the next available train back to Bolton, arriving at 11.16pm. I had then to sprint across town in order to catch the last bus to Harwood at 11.25pm from Moor Lane to arrive home at about 11.45pm. From leaving work at 10.15pm, my journey time from Ardwick, Manchester to Harwood (a distance of around 14 miles) was approximately one hour and 30 minutes compared to 30 minutes by car.

Richard Austin

Broadstone Road, Harwood, Bolton

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.