The report about how China's domestic air carriers are feeling the pinch from competition with high-speed rail was inevitable ("Mainland airlines fly into headwinds from high speed trains", February 20).
I have been warning for years that railways are the sensible way to go and that ever-expanding aviation is doomed because of its environmental destructiveness.
It's a simple equation. Aviation pollutes on a far greater scale than railways, both in terms of noise and air quality. Electricity required for running trains can increasingly come from greener forms of power generation which China is progressively rolling out.
On the other hand, aircraft have no alternative to the burning of increasingly expensive fossil fuels, which not only pollute our air but contribute significantly to global warming and climate change.
Moreover, as airports and air corridors become more congested, aircraft are compelled to fly longer deviating routes or be held in holding patterns waiting for take-off and landing slots.
Smog caused by too much vehicular traffic in gridlocked cities also increasingly disrupts flights, causing passengers to suffer nightmarish delays.