READ with interest the letter from Kate Mellersh (View Points, November 30) with regard to overcrowding on many trains to London.

Firstly, I just don’t understand how the health and safety of passengers can be so overlooked when, as reported, hundreds of people have to stand on these crowded trains all the way to London.

If there are many first class seats empty, why doesn’t the train manager have the powers to declassify them to second class and let many passengers sit down?

Regarding travel by Oxford Bus/Oxford Tube to London, they can only fill the seats available as everyone has to be belted up by law.

If it is not a safe practice to stand on these buses why is it allowed for hundreds of train passengers to stand at greater speeds?

An extra carriage here and there would help, if they were available, but most trains are made up of sets and at present are limited. And of course there is another problem to consider and that is the length of some platforms, especially country stations.

Chiltern Railway trains don’t have any first class coaches so they don’t have empty seats that cannot be used. But then they don’t run from Oxford at the moment, so passengers will have to suffer longer with First Great Western.

COLIN SMITH, George Moore Close, Donnington, Oxford