Sir – It was fascinating to read about the projected 51 per cent increase in demand for rail services to London Paddington over the next 20 years (Report, August 4).

Writing in the same edition about the excessive speed of cars on various dual carriageways and the abuse of the overtaking lane, your correspondent R. Judd might have inadvertently indicated where an alternative response to growth in commuting might lie.

Rather than dump thousands of passengers at London stations which are already at capacity (incidentally, an insurmountable problem for High Speed Rail identified by the Mayor of London), much of this additional demand could be carried by express coaches.

Carbon reduction budgets required to comply with the Climate Change Act will not be met unless the national speed limit is reduced to 60mph (ie the current maximum speed for coaches) or below. This would start to reduce the comparative advantage currently enjoyed by cars for longer journeys, especially for commuting when the use of phone and laptop could be useful.

The further step would be to reverse the current situation and to allow coaches to travel at 70mph or above in the overtaking lane(s) of all dual carriageways dedicated to their use.

With increased demand, coaches would have the flexibility to use a wide variety of both starting points and destinations, and would more easily be redeployed if it turns out that the projections of growth in commuting turn out to be overestimates.

Coaches are also likely to be cheaper than trains and can be designed to run on lower carbon fuels such as LPG. This modal shift on to faster coaches would reduce or even remove congestion and make journeys more reliable.

Daniel Scharf, Drayton, nr Abingdon