LETTER: Rouble routes

From Mr N. I. Barnes

Sir: Neil Taylor says of Russia: "the lack of public transport requires a taxi transfer to the airport". (Business Travel: "Former Soviet states seek solutions", 15 November)

In St Petersburg at the moment one can go to either of the airports by public transport (metro and bus) for a total of 1,000 roubles (pounds 1=7,000 roubles). If one does not fancy standing in a crowded bus, falling over one's own luggage (an extra 400 roubles per case) there is, every 20 minutes, a shuttle bus between the city centre and the international airport, costing 4,000 roubles (57p). I assume that something similar operates in Moscow.

Of those, admittedly few, agents I recently approached in London on this question, only Finnair was a help; it told me about the shuttle. Taxi fares can be extra-terrestrial: the art of milking the foreign business- visitor is well advanced.

Yours faithfully,

N. I. Barnes

London, NW8

16 November