Travel: Wrong lines

WAXING lyrical about the delights of the Channel tunnel, I dreamily anticipated the pleasures of 'climbing aboard a train on a cold spring night in Cardiff or Manchester and descending six or seven hours later on a sun-drenched morning at a bougainvillea-scented platform somewhere in Provence . . .'

Stephen Skillman of Oxford writes to say that he thinks such a journey will not be possible because the Eurostar trains are not powerful enough to use the lines from Paris to Provence and South-west France. Provence-bound passengers from London will have to change at Lille.

He writes: 'It is not pleasant to contemplate climbing aboard a train on a cold spring night in Cardiff or Manchester, and descending three or four hours later on a cold, dark and distinctly non-Provencal Lille platform to change trains. Surely most people would choose to fly.'