Sir - Some two weeks ago I was waiting hopefully along with a dozen other passengers at the Randolph Hotel stop for the northbound Stagecoach No.6 bus to Wolvercote.

The electronic indicator at the stop read: 6 Wolvercote DUE (1st bus) and beneath that 6 Wolvercote 12 Minutes (2nd bus). When after six minutes the due bus had failed to materialise a small girl in the queue turned to her mother and exclaimed: "Mummy, perhaps the 12-minute bus will arrive before the due bus!"

Out of the mouths of babes etc.

Julian Dare, Oxford