Rural buses are no green solution

Rosie Winterton's and the government's belief that congestion and emissions may be significantly reduced by encouraging or bullying people out of cars on to buses and trains is misplaced (News last week). 

After all, if the bus and train could serve today's dispersed land use then that dispersal would have arisen in the past, but it did not.

Buses and trains account for only 12% of passenger-miles, so large percentage increases in their use can affect car use only marginally.

Few vehicles are less environmentally friendly than a subsidised bus trundling around with a couple of passengers. 

Even in London, outside the centre 70% of motorised journeys are by car, probably representing 80% of passenger miles.

PAUL F WITHRINGTON, director, Transport-Watch, 12 Redland Drive, Northampton, NN2 8QE