SIR - Steve Wilton is in my opinion correct in his analysis of transport projects and the need for them to support a low carbon future. (Transport projects must be looked at, Craven Herald letters, August 8).

By questioning the sensibility of building a triple-decker car park at Steeton and Silsden station he is absolutely spot-on. The future we need to plan for should have less motorised vehicles on the road, not more. To build a larger car park at Steeton will encourage more car journeys and create more traffic congestion.

The way forward is to improve public transport links.

If the car park and Steeton and Silsden is to be improved it would be a far more sensible idea to install electric vehicle charging points as has been done at railway stations elsewhere.

In the same issue of the newspaper you carry a report about Silsden Councillor Adrian Nailor's suggestion to introduce electrically powered, low emission buses and taxis in the Bradford Metropolitan district. This is exactly what other parts of the world are now doing. New taxis in New South Wales, Australia are either fully electric or hybrid vehicles. These suggestions need to be taken far more seriously and acted upon.

The current ticketing and fare charging system needs a full overhaul if more people are to be encouraged to use public transport. A valid argument for not using bus and train is the cost. Travelling between two points that are not directly linked by one travel service can be incredibly expensive when you add up the individual cost of the tickets.

Therefore Tickets for through travel between bus and train should be offered instead of having to purchase separate tickets. To incentivise usage such a system would need to offer a much reduced total cost.

In fact why not go the whole hog and abandon the purchase with cash for tickets altogether and use a prepaid Oyster card type of system? Such systems also exist in Australia and Germany as well as London. To use the systems passengers board a train or bus, then swipe the prepaid card over a sensor on entry and then on exit and their account is debited accordingly. The same card is used for bus and rail, (and in Sydney Harbour for the ferries as well.) The more frequently the commuter uses public transport the lower their costs as they receive rewards of free or discounted journeys. A huge benefit of this system is that buses in particular don't cause congestion by holding up traffic while passengers search for and hand over the right change to purchase a ticket.

The mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham, recently pointed out the huge disparity in public transport costs for a commuters in the north compared with London. A single bus journey in Manchester and other areas of the north can cost up to £4, whereas in London single bus journey is capped at £1.50. We should be asking our elected representatives to highlight this disparity and bring about reduced costs in the north.

Let's have some joined up thinking in our area so that a commuter can pay just one fare to enable seamless travel from A to B using any combination of train and bus.

If a regular shuttle bus were introduced between Colne and Skipton, or Steeton and Silsden stations then I would question the need to reopen the Skipton to Colne Railway. Existing bus services between East Lancashire and Skipton, or Keighley, could have their routes very slightly modified to achieve this at little or no cost, and using a combination of the ideas I've mentioned above, a single fare could be charged to a passenger wishing to travel between any point of origin in East Lancashire and any destination in West or North Yorkshire.

We really do need some joined up thinking on travel!

Graham Smout

Cowling