GOING to Preston for a drink with friends, I decided to catch the train.

Because of the times of local buses, it meant a 20-minute wait at Blackburn station - or so I thought!

Arriving at the station on a freezing evening, I found that it hasn't had toilets for years and the waiting room is locked and out of use. There is nothing for the passenger.

At the time the train should have arrived, there was an announcement to say it was running 25 minutes late, but that a local train would arrive in 11 minutes - which it did. I thought a grant had been made available for work to start on improving the station. But will it?

Its present state certainly doesn't encourage the use of public transport. Just a heated waiting room would be welcome - instead of passengers having to wait on freezing platforms for late trains.

A J WEARDEN, East Lancs Road, Blackburn.

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