SIR — As a retired bus driver I wish to add a few comments to the correspondence regarding the No 28 bus service.

First off, it is the legal responsibility of the bus driver to ensure that luggage is not left in any gangway or in a position where it obstructs an entrance or exit.

If luggage is left in any such position the driver should refuse to move the vehicle until the situation is resolved.

In 50 years of bus work, first as a conductor and later as a driver, it was always made clear to my passengers that this situation would not be tolerated and it is in the interests of everyone that the regulation is enforced rigidly.

I do know that the vehicles used on the 28 service are far too small to cope a lot of the time and the sensible course would be to use double deckers, but these days, where the bus operators' profits come first, we are not likely to see any improvement in that area as almost all the vehicles we have to suffer are cast-offs from other parts of the country.

Matters are not helped when almost a third of the floor area of the bus is taken up with a wheelchair/buggy space which would be much more usefully employed for a luggage rack.

I won't go into the realm of the legislation that requires all buses to be wheelchair friendly, but suffice to say that it creates a minefield for both bus operators and ordinary passengers alike and needs addressing as a matter of urgency so that ordinary passengers get a fair deal as well.

My second point is in relation to a comment about why the buses on the Taunton run could not operate at half hourly intervals.

Well, they do, except of course that when Webberbus put on their 18 service it ran at the half-hour interval between the Firstbus 28 journeys, which was fine except that (with the exception of us pensioners) if you patronised one or other operator you still only had an hourly service available if you had to pay for a return or a season ticket.

First, in their wisdom and the wonderfully useful spirit of competition, almost immediately put on another bus to operate at the same time as the 18 service and thus the situation continues.

I see little hope of this ludicrous situation getting better while the Traffic Commissioners have no powers left with which to order an improvement.

Common sense decrees that if the route warrants three buses an hour then they should run at 20-minute intervals and, furthermore, each operator should be made to accept the other operator's returns, season tickets etc - after all it is supposed to be a public service.

The only way to get improvements is to give back to the Traffic Commissioners the power to regulate bus services instead of just acting as a rubber stamp organisation for the antics of these privateers.

If anyone really wants improvements to our bus services, we need to make as much fuss as possible via both the Traffic Commissioners and our MPs.

However, I don't hold out much hope via the latter course unless the complaints run into thousands and even then they probably won't listen.

Those who have written in with complaints have made the first important step - the next is to get out the soap boxes and get the current system of regulation changed so that the needs of travellers come first.

Name and address supplied.