SIR - I like rail travel but the decision by Northern Rail to fine Rudi Spence £100 because he didn't look at the website is pathetic.

The offence - boarding a train without a ticket, but with the full intention of buying one. With no ticket seller at station. This snivelling, petty, awful nonsense adds to the already poor public perception of the railways because of the chaos caused by the strikes.

I want to ask Northern Rail this. When we travelled on a train from Newcastle to Leeds in May, we were met with a large number of Scottish boxing fans travelling to a match in Leeds. Although good natured, they were taking drugs, boozing and playing loud music, leaving the train in a state of carnage.

Did any of them get fined? Or are you just going to pick on people who aren't mind readers, who don't get their info from a computer, possibly because they don't have one?

Alan Bates, Coach Road, Baildon