YOU recently reported Jack Straw giving his approval to Blackburn railway station improvement scheme.

He was shown what was to be demolished and plans of what will rise from the ashes by Railtrack.

Mr Straw said: "The new station will give people, especially women, more of a sense of feeling secure and if people know that, they will want to use the station."

Coming straight from our MP and Home Secretary, those words must hearten long-suffering commuters and occasional rail users alike.

But is it all as rosy as Jack Straw's vision has it painted?

Certainly not if North West Trains go ahead with the staff cuts planned throughout the region with both Blackburn and Bolton stations losing key platform staff.

Platform staff on a station are not there out of archaic tradition. They present to the public the feeling of security Jack Straw speaks of.

The presence of uniformed staff reassures people, especially women travelling alone, the disabled and blind who appreciate some assistance when boarding and alighting. Late running services can miss connections at mainline stations. The railman on the spot can often deal with this situation with a phone call to the right people.

During the 1980s, British Rail introduced a scheme called 'The Open Station Concept.'

This hare-brained idea did away with ticket inspection on stations, leaving it to passengers to buy a ticket at the booking office and simply walk on unchecked.

BR in their wisdom said this would cut down on fare evasion as more 'on train ticket inspectors' would be on hand to discourage fare dodgers with on-the-spot fines.

This merely eliminated queues at platforms, but caused headaches for all other railway staff who found their workplace an open house.

Drug users and dealers and drinkers are not discouraged by private security firms making occasional visits.

JOHN LEADLEY, Sandhill Street, Darwen.

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