A GOOD piece in The Bolton News by columnist Ian Savage on Friday regarding the latest increase ­— 3.1% ­— to the cost of a train ticket.

In the past eight years, the annual increase has been more than inflation and far more than the increase in the average pay packet.

Ian Savage and Sir David Crausby MP are quite right in keeping these increases in the public domain. Well done to them.

Private companies running public transport (with subsidies from the taxpayer) increase the price of tickets and increase the dividend for shareholders whilst reducing the service for the travelling public. Scandalous.

Who is the Secretary of State for Transport overseeing all this? Chris Grayling MP is the answer.

Not only has Mr Grayling been asleep at the wheel as commuters paying ever increasing fares, stand waiting for delayed or even cancelled trains, he is tasked with organising the transport to and from the EU after Brexit.

How does Mr Grayling ensure the vital medicines and foodstuff, etc, that we do not produce but rely on the EU, will continue to enter the country?

He awards a mulit-million pound contract, without tender, to a company that does not own a single ferry nor have any ferry crossing experience.

This is hard to believe, but unfortunately only too true. It is worth pointing out that Mark Bamford is a senior executive at the ferry-less ferry company ­— SeaborneFerry and his brother, Lord Bamford, donated £1 million to the last Conservative Party election campaign.

I am not making this up. We have not fallen down a rabbit hole. This is not Alice in Wonderland. This is actually happening.

What is happening to our country? How did we get into this mess? Who will save us?

Eric Hyland

Harwood