ON the day Gadfly drew attention to the farcical rail service to Teesside Airport (Echo, Jan 26), I travelled on the same line from Darlington to Middlesbrough.

I was amazed at the eccentric timetable of services between Saltburn to Middlesbrough and Darlington and Bishop Auckland.

Trains which leave Saltburn every 30 minutes, on the hour and half hour, manage to make their return journeys at widely varying times.

The intricacies of this timetable could make it onto Mastermind as a specialist topic.

Clock face timing and regular interval services are important ways of increasing patronage of services, and ultimately reducing public subsidy. The stopping pattern is similarly arcane.

The Pacer trains which bounce, rattle and roll along the line are examples more of penny-farthing than space age technology.

It was argued that privatisation of the railways would encourage initiative and investment.

That may be the case somewhere in Britain, but on Teesside it seems to have led to archaic service delivery standards.

Colin Wakeling, Berwick.