If I want to travel by air I need to arrive long before my flight to go through elaborate security checks. I am not allowed to carry with me various normal bottled fluids, and have to take my shoes off for inspection. I am told this is necessary to keep me safe.

When I travel by tube - equally vulnerable to terrorist attack as we have seen in recent years - I am can carry anything I like with me. There are no security checks of any kind and mercifully I can keep my shoes on. Apparently intrusive security checks would not keep me safe on the tube.

If I travel by air I am told I have to have a seat in case the aircraft hits turbulence. I am not allowed to stand on a plane when travelling.

If I travel by tube I often have to stand. This morning there were so many people standing I could not even use a hanging strap to keep me upright as the train lurched round bends, shook over points, and braked suddenly. The journey was considerably less smooth than most flights.

If I travel by plane I am told I have to fasten my seat belt for take off and landing, and sometimes for the rest of the journey. I have been fortunate in never once experiencing the need for such restraint to protect me.

If I travel by tube there is?? no seat belt should I be lucky enough to get a seat. On some occasions a belt would have been helpful to me in staying securely in the seat under strong braking pressures.

If I travel by public air transport I am in some people’s eyes an environmental criminal. If I travel by tube I am an environmental hero, yet both modes of transport use substantial quantities of hydrocarbon fuel - in the case of the tube in a coal or gas burning power station.

It is time governemnt examined these ridiculous double standards, and put some commonsense into both systems of travel. The tube is overcrowded and less safe because of that. We need more capacity on the tube, and that requires different technology to allow them to run more trains per hour, thus allowing a more frequent service with more seats. Airport security should be based more on intelligence and random checks.

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