MY wife and I called into the Crianlarich railway station tearoom on the way back from walking a stretch of the East Highland Way by Loch Laggan. As usual the drive by Loch Lochy, Upper Loch Linnhe, Loch Leven and Glencoe was spectacular. Tourists were out in their thousands enjoying the warm weather. I counted myself fortunate to be living in such a beautiful country and happy for the tourists to be experiencing Scotland at its best.

We sat down and admired the views towards Ben More from the station platform. Then a crammed and very old two-carriage train chugged in from Oban with passengers standing. A few got off and waited for the connection to Fort William/Mallaig only to notice "Cancelled" on the train arrivals board. No-one had thought to tell them the line had been closed for a week because of a landslip. They would have to carry their suitcases and other baggage a hundred metres or so down the road to the bus stop.

I have travelled the West Highland Line many times. It is thought by many to be one of the most spectacular journeys in the world. I fail to understand why a treasure like this is so poorly served in so many ways. Three services per day from Glasgow Queen Street in old, dirty, overcrowded, overheated carriages is not the way to sell our country. Could someone give the ScotRail team a good kick up the backside and ask them to get their act together?

Paul Shaw, Dunblane.

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Council must do much better

SADLY, it comes as no surprise that Renfrewshire Council has made a monumental error in the calculation of the projected school roll for Dargavel Primary and Park Mains Secondary. The projected cost of ÂŁ75m to remedy the situation will be a millstone around the necks of the council taxpayers for years to come.

David Bowles, the author of the report into the fiasco, has excoriated officers of Renfrewshire Council: “professional arrogance’; “lack of professionalism”; “gross incompetence” ("Review blast at ‘too small’ school blunder", The Herald, June 17).

Concerning another matter involving Renfrewshire Council and our local community council, it took several FoI requests before officers of Renfrewshire Council agreed and belatedly apologised that we, as a community council, had been misled about local traffic management issues; therefore Mr Bowles' remarks struck exactly the right note.

One can only hope that the calculations for the roll for the new Paisley Grammar School are accurate and have been double and triple-checked.

One can also only hope that their Section 75 agreements for the new Paisley Grammar campus as well as the Section 75 agreements for the housing developments at Dykebar Hospital and the Thornly Park Campus of University of the West of Scotland are not conducted in a grossly inadequate manner as in the Dargavel Primary and Park Mains Secondary disaster.

One cannot absolve the elected members from this fiasco. There is a widely-held view that the elected members have little sway over the officers, who appear to be unaccountable to anyone.

Hopefully, as a result of David Bowles’ report there might be a wind of change blowing through the offices of Renfrewshire House.

I won’t be holding my breath.

Dr Andrew Ramsay, Paisley.

Read more: Tunnel vision mars Rest and be Thankful plan

Big hopes for Coire Glas plan

I NOTE GM Lindsay’s letter (June 17) where he states that “there are no batteries on Earth which can cope with and help balance such huge quantities of wind-generation levels” . Has he heard of the proposed Coire Glas pump storage scheme whereby water from Loch Lochy will be pumped up the steep hill adjacent to it to a reservoir and water then released to create electricity to balance out renewably generated power?

The developers, SSE, reckon this could power three million homes and more than double current UK electricity storage. Preparatory, exploratory work is going ahead, conducted by a specialist Austrian company and SSE has invested ÂŁ100 million in the scheme. However, SSE says it requires guaranteed regulatory arrangements from the UK Government before going ahead. As yet these guarantees are not forthcoming.

Susan Grant, Tain.

Not dipping into scarce resouces

YOUR excellent picture of swimmers enjoying themselves at the Gourock Outdoor Pool ("Cool dude", The Herald, June 17)suggests that there is pressure on reservoirs due to the recent spell of hot weather. For clarity, the Gourock Outdoor Pool draws and filters sea water from the adjacent Firth of Clyde and maintains the temperature at a minimum 29C all year round.

The local humour refers to pensioners' day, every Thursday, as "Granny Soup".

Peter Wright, West Kilbride.

A select club

TODAY'S photograph of the great John Panton ("‘Iron’ man John is honoured", The Herald, June 19) brought back happy memories of playing golf with and following him. A true gentleman of the links, John had never a bad word to say about anyone and never swore. After a rare mishit in a tournament at Williamwood, I heard him, in a whisper, say "Blast!".

Today's golfers would learn much by reading and hearing of "Honest John". My proudest possessions include one of the 100 sets produced by John Letters to mark John's retirement. I often wonder who has the other 99.

David Miller, Milngavie.

Careless talk

CHARLES Wardrop’s letter (June 17) regarding his mother’s principle, “Be good and you’ll be happy, but if you can’t be good be careful" reminded me of a very similar saying among my friends in our late teens before going out: “Be good and if you can’t be good be careful, and if you can’t be careful buy a pram.”

Eric Macdonald, Paisley.

Let's swap the statues

IN response to R Russell Smith (Letters, June 16) and Mary Duncan (Letters, June 19) on the cultural importance to Glasgow of the statues of Lobey Dosser and the Duke of Wellington, might I suggest a neat solution (even though I can't claim to be a deputy sheriff)?

We could switch their locations; with Lobey Dosser and El Fideldo proudly ensconced in front of the GOMA building and the Duke of Wellington and Copenhagen planted in Lobey Dosser's old hang-out with its fine views down Woodlands Road to the M8. There would be no need to constantly replace the cone; no one in Glasgow would defile the statue of Lobey, but whether the Iron Duke would continue to be crowned must remain to be seen. I suspect he would be.

John Jamieson, Ayr.