Letter: Cars, trams and trolleybuses

Letter: Cars, trams and trolleybuses

Sir: One city that has, proportionally, similar problems to London is Prague ("Who needs a second car?", 22 August). Built on lines completely incompatible with the motor car, and filled with both a large tourist and indigenous population, it can show John Prescott a (subsidised) solution that works.

As a regular visitor, I never attempt to use my car in the city. Parking is severely restricted to residents and where there are car parks, they are comparatively expensive. The alternatives are cheap and plentiful, but their prime attraction is their reliability.

Trams have priority over all other traffic. Buses run exactly on time - again due to their priority over other vehicles. The Metro runs on time and has surroundings both pleasant and functional. A ticket costs 10 crowns (20p) and lasts for one hour after being stamped at the start of a journey. Mixing forms of travel during that hour is unrestricted.

Mussolini may have made the trains run on time, but Mr Prescott should look to Havel for his model for a transport solution, for London at least.

M GODDARD

London SW1