WHAT a blow for our railway pride that a rail company in the south of England has received its first Japanese bullet train to start a fleet of similar locomotives for use on the English side of the Channel link to London (Echo, Aug 24).

Taking in the cost of shipping from halfway around the world, building the same here surely would have been possible.

Have we sunk so low in skills that our youth can only look forward to McDonalds and Tesco technology in their future? Have we any loco industry left in the UK, other than the very expensive preservation workshops?

We should concentrate our education on skills for life - building, engineering, science, medical, etc, not media studies, social engineering and many other irrelevant subjects.

Bob Harbron, Norton, Teesside.