MY wife and I recently spent a wonderful six hours at the Millennium Dome and are full of praise for the splendid attractions which are both entertaining and educational. Everyone in the country ought to go and see it.

There has been much talk of the "failure" of the Dome, endless criticism in the press and even rumours of possible early closure before the end of 2000. But such detractors should consider why people may not be going to the Dome . . . and look no further than some of the train companies who are making it financially impossible for people to travel there.

Let me explain what happened to us.

I had heard that special "Train to Dome" tickets were available so I rang the national train enquiry service and was told that we could travel on the 7.30am Virgin train from Manchester and change at Euston for the Underground to North Greenwich. The cost was just over £30 each for return tickets. So off I go to Piccadilly, five days before we are due to travel, to discover that there are no early morning cheap returns to the Dome, only the normal early morning fare of £150 each return (plus the Underground fare)! Only if we had wanted to travel after 9.30am and therefore spend only two or three hours at the Dome or were travelling on a Saturday or Sunday, were cheap fares available.

There was an alternative, or at least there was last week.

A train I have used before was the North West Trains 7.20am service from Manchester Victoria to Euston. It takes one hour longer, but it's only £25 each return And it returns from Euston at 8pm. So we did have six hours at the Dome.

However, we are told by North West Trains staff that it is no longer running. Why, I wonder? Was it too much competition for Virgin who want to rake in £150 return from each traveller (and £250 return if the traveller wants first-class)? Businesses may be able to stump up such ridiculous fares, but not the ordinary individual.

So what now is the cheapest way to travel early morning to London? Well people can save themselves nearly £50 by travelling Regional Railways to Sheffield and then Midland Mainline to St Pancras . . . a total of £105 return. But that is still too much for ordinary people like us.

We are going again in a fortnight to see the bits we missed. But this time we shall go by car!

FR. DEREK A. HAILES,

parish priest,

Holy Trinity Church, Bury.