No sense in using a 'hobby language'

I READ with some amazement your article on the proposed use of Welsh names on English railway stations.

Quite frankly, it has to be the dottiest suggestion I have heard for some time. The concept of a Welshman travelling by train from Cardiff and not realising when he had reached Hereford station is utterly preposterous. You might as well say that, given the large Welsh population in London, Paddington should also be 'translated,' to avoid travellers not realising where they were, and travelling back home again.

Whether we were ever part of Wales is hardly relevant, given the elapsed time. Anyway, I am not sure it is strictly true. Although the usual bands of sheep stealers crossed the border periodically, I am not certain they raised their flag.

Welsh is effectively a hobby language, with no economic applications. If people wish to speak it in the privacy of their own pubs, that is fine with me. Let us not, however, spend valuable resources on an exercise of such triviality.

Fortunately Arriva is likely to see the realism of the commercial case for ignoring Cefn. Herefordshire Council are less well noted for logical thought, but even they should see the futility of such an exercise.

MH BURTON,

Eaton Bishop, Hereford.