IT is ironic that you published a letter from Alan Mackintosh putting forward the case Prestwick Airport (December 12) in the same issue in which you report that Glasgow Airport enjoyed its 10th consecutive month of passenger growth, with 514,000 people travelling through its doors last month ("Airport boosted by demand for long-haul flights", The Herald, December 12).

The annual figure for Prestwick is a drop from 1.8m to 1.2m over recent years.

The real reason for this enormous disparity is that at Prestwick has only one significant customer and it is only there because both Edinburgh and Glasgow airports were unwilling to accept what they considered to be its uneconomic terms of business.

The only customers airports have are airlines, and without customers there is no-one else to pay the bills.

My concern is that a great deal of public money will be wasted in trying to resuscitate an airport that is regrettably no longer fit for purpose.

It has been admitted that it needs a infusion of £20m just to improve its appearance and infrastructure. In comparison Glasgow Airport has already spent £17m in preparation for the Commonwealth Games next year.

It would be more ironic if, in order to become profitable, or to get to a break-even point, Prestwick enjoyed a level of subsidies that took hard-earned traffic and jobs away from Glasgow.

If only it had a catchment area to equal the central belt then how different the story would be.

R Johnston,

3 Barcapel Avenue,

Glasgow.

THE letter from Craig Crawford on Glasgow to Edinburgh rail services pointing out that the journey used to take 43 minutes (November 25) struck a chord.

I recall a return journey from an evening meeting in Edinburgh that was accomplished in just 38 minutes.

These services were operated by "push-pull" trains comprising five or six corridor coaches with a diesel locomotive at both ends which produced faster acceleration, higher top speed and, from a passenger perspective, were quieter than the previous diesel multiple units.

A similar scenario applies with the Paisley corridor improvements which have featured recently as benefits offsetting the cost of cancelling the Glasgow Airport Rail Link.

The line from Shields Junction to Arkleston Junction is now triple track and that from Arkleston Junction to Wallneuk Junction has quadruple track. Built around the 1890s, Shields Junction to Wallneuk Junction had quadruple track which was reduced to double track during the electrification of 1967, the centre (fast) lines being lost with the columns for supporting the overhead wires located there.

It is to be hoped that this substantial asset will be exploited with faster services appearing in the new timetables with the train operating companies committed to enhancing and maintaining services.

Norman R. Mort,

3 Sandhead Road,

Strathaven.