Iain Cameron Williams praises Richard Branson, but Robert Snape does not harbour such fond memories of his train service. Ian Pickles approves of the Guardian’s coverage of railway upgrades

I was irritated to read Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, state: “If Virgin disappears from the railway as Branson warns, it won’t be missed by taxpayers or passengers” (Branson makes £300m from Virgin’s rail franchise venture, 12 April).

I, for one, will greatly miss Virgin Trains if it vanishes from the rail network. I have always found it to be the only British operator that could be relied upon to deliver a decent, punctual service.

I happened to be visiting Miami earlier this month and by chance travelled on the launch train of Virgin’s Brightline rail service from Miami to Palm Beach. I can assure the private investors that they have made a wise investment. The service was super-efficient, spotlessly clean and extremely comfortable, and arrived at our destination on time to the minute.

Perhaps if naysayers had also travelled on the Brightline they might not write off one of the greatest and wisest entrepreneur’s the UK has produced over the past 50 years.

Iain Cameron Williams

Edinburgh

• Unlike your correspondent (Letters, 13 April), I do not harbour fond memories of Richard Branson’s Virgin Trains west coast mainline service. Instead, what will stay in my mind will be the eye-watering fares, somewhat rude customer service, an infamous journey to London on which a clearly confused and distressed elderly lady was made to stand rather than allowed to use an empty first-class seat, and the redefinition of off-peak as starting at 2.30pm.

Robert Snape

Preston, Lancashire

• I’m proud to subscribe to what may be the only popular media source that can report the improvements being made to our national rail network without using the word “chaos” (Hundreds of thousands of passengers face rail network disruption at Easter, 13 April). There may be some difficulties when the planned arrangements don’t work, but I pay tribute to the workers who make these improvements happen and plan to minimise the inconvenience to the rest of us. (PS. I don’t do any of this work!)

Ian Pickles

Broseley, Shropshire

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