SIR – In his letter (T&A, March 9), A Shipman shows a mean streak regarding people wishing to travel first class on the train.

I am not supporting the Conservative MP when I inform him that a New Labour Minister also stated he travelled first class for the same reasons.

I do not often travel by train, but when I did, the behaviour of the “ordinary people”, as Mr Shipman likes to call “lower-grade” passengers, did, in many cases, deserve the tag “lower-grade”.

Because of this, when travelling on business, I always preferred first class to avoid the yobs who, Mr Shipman, are not what I consider to be ordinary people, but there were a lot of them about on the trains.

This was not snobbery but a question of travelling without being abused by loutish behaviour.

Philip Bird, Nab Wood Terrace, Shipley