SIR – An interesting story regarding fare dodging on the Airedale rail line – ‘Saltaire is a hotspot for rail fare dodgers’ (T&A, May 3).

You might ask, why interesting? Northern Rail’s solution – to employ three or four people at Bradford Forster Square to check tickets. Except that most of the people they are trying to catch have already got off the train at Shipley or Frizinghall, possibly many of the culprits being pupils from schools who don’t travel as far as Bradford.

They very soon cottoned-on to the system. It is also self-perpetuating as they tell others and the younger ones. The trouble is it is now working backwards as far as Crossflatts and Bingley, with others realising the possibilities for ‘free’ travel.

The real solution – an automatic ticket barrier at Bradford needing only one person to deal with problems and to re-deploy the other staff to new barriers at Saltaire, Shipley, Frizinghall and Crossflatts. Perhaps also having some of those security staff on the train between Keighley and Bradford at the relevant times. Of course, that would require logic and common sense.

Stephen Bennett, Grafton Road, Keighley