The railway between Wyong and Tuggerah is already straight, so suggesting that a deviation to the existing route will improve train speeds is absolutely foolish.

From what I can ascertain, the aim of the project is to provide a relief line between Wyong and the new maintenance facility at Kangy Angy to minimise disruptions with services operating on the main line.

If the state government was eager to improve travel times between Sydney and Newcastle, they'd build a series of deviations to bypass the most notorious sections of the route, such as Cowan Bank or Hawkmount.

I am absolutely fed up with politicians announcing plans to introduce high-speed rail in NSW, when they have no intention to deliver on their promises.

Politicians who do this are beginning to look like the boy who cried wolf in the famous Aesop fable.

Stop fabricating these boondoggles.

You are elected to serve the people of NSW, not to provide yourself with a comfortable retirement plan.

The vision for faster rail travel on the Central Coast would be far more achievable by constructing deviations along the worst sections of the route incrementally.

This was how the existing M1 Motorway was constructed.

Gradually these deviations would lead to a much straighter route, meaning that significantly faster train services on the Central Coast would become a reality.

IN reply to Maureen O'Sullivan, ("States have let our health workers down", Letters, 13/6), I'm afraid that the American style health system is already here.

Last Tuesday I went to see a surgeon regarding a small operation on my nose. After consultation I was ushered into another room where I was met by a clerical person who promptly charged me for the visit and explained the costs of my upcoming operation. At the end she stated, by the way there is a non refundable "out of pocket cost of $500", payable in advance. Later that day, I received correspondence from the surgeon's office to advise me on the name of the anaesthetist and to ring their office regarding arrangements and payment. During this conversation I was also advised that there is a non refundable "out of pocket expenses of $500, payable in advance".

I was completely stunned. I am also up for a $500 excess to Bupa for my overnight stay. I was aware of this and knew in advance of this cost. However, the other two costs floored me. I pay top cover to Bupa, however these costs are over and above both the Medicare and Bupa rebates.

To add insult to injury when I received my receipt from the anaesthetist they charged me an additional $7.50 (1.5 per cent) credit card fee. So Maureen, the American style system is already here, unfortunately.

RICHARD Burnett identifies me as a "zealot" because I say what 200 national and international scientific bodies say: human influence is the dominant cause of recent global warming.

The science is absolutely and terrifyingly settled. (Even the American Association of Petroleum Geologists finally relented in 2007. They gave up their earlier denial and their current position on the general consensus is to be "non-committal".)

Global warming impacts are not "decades into the future". Recent CSIRO analysis of 90 years of Australian fire data shows three of the four identified "megafires", when more than a million hectares of forest burn, have been since 2000. This is not "long term predictions".

This year in India heat waves started very early and lasted for weeks. In March India recorded its hottest temperatures since record-keeping began 120 years ago. In May Delhi reached 49C. Hundreds of millions of people have suffered. Scientists say this weather is at least 30 times more likely to have occurred because of the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Global warming impacts are already here. I am sorry and I understand it is confronting. But it is time to focus on, and deal with, reality. Delay is courting more disaster.

I WATCHED the Knights coach Adam O'Brien being interviewed after the game on Sunday and he appeared to have no answers, but plenty of excuses.

His team had a two-week spell to get over any niggling injuries and they went out like a team that was still on a holiday devoid of any attack or defence. He should have known that the Penrith defence would suffocate them if they ran one out but this is what they did with no second phase or offloads, their defence had no hunger in it letting Penrith pull out of tackles at will. The Knights let young Josh King go to the Storm and look at what Craig Bellamy has done with him, a 70-minute tackling machine, how we could do with him now.

In my opinion, O'Brien's record is not that much better than other three coaches that have been sacked.

BABY Boomers and Gen X babies were not fed on commercial baby formula because not so long ago the product hardly existed.

The US is very short of supplies of infant formula which has created many problems and an Australian company is about to ship formula to ease the situation.

Apart from "breast is best" we have become completely dependent on prepared commercial formula. Milk in the form of fresh or powdered or evaporated products are all totally wholesome nutritional inexpensive products that were used, not straight but in various mixes or formula plus this or that. This is not to deny allergy and other issues.

Baby Health Centres were in many suburbs and offered free professional guidance including feeding issues.

The former largest hospital in Newcastle right beside the sea, always used evaporated milk in infant formulas under direction of the dietitian.

Progress has given us a perfectly easy solution to infant feeding and safe supplies must be provided.

RE: "$500m for fast rail 'a godsend'", (Herald, 13/6). "The investment is slated to improve the Tuggerah-Wyong connection": Wow. The current journey time is an excruciating three minutes southward and presumably about the same northward to Newcastle.

Bullet train here we come.

The time for the journey between (demolished) Wickham and Newcastle stations was between four and five minutes. Now with our "seamless" Wickham interchange and gimmick tram, the journey can take 20-30 minutes. "Progress" eh?

"CHICKEN'S last walk to the woodheap"; that's what it feels like going to a Knights game. Four minutes for Penrith to score (the softest of tries); from then it was completely downhill to the chook yard. Can someone please explain all these diabolical performances to the suffering loyal members and fans, including myself.

THE Knights home ground was once their fortress. Sadly it's now become a mattress for the home team to lie down. Even more sadly, the current regime doesn't inspire any confidence that things will change in the near future.

THEY tell me that at the Knights training sessions when the coach tells them to take up their normal positions on the field they all just go and stand behind the goal posts.

WATCHING the Knights play the Panthers was like watching the Harlem Globetrotters play the Washington Generals.

JUST imagine the furore if the Trade Unions behaved the way the energy sector is behaving right now.

JOHN Wignall, ("Anger at hefty parking fine", Letters, 11/6), complains about being fined for parking in a no stopping zone because he is a handicapped pensioner, he misjudged the signs, he is on a walking stick, he has had one hip replaced. How does he think the parking cop could be expected to know all this anyway and why does he think the law shouldn't apply to him? No stopping means no stopping so I can't see what his gripe is about, to be truthful.

I WONDER whether Adz Carter's full Christian name is "Ad hominem".

PAUL Keating's "jam jar full of 5 cent pieces", Adz Carter, (Short Takes, 13/6), morphed into a half-billion dollar handout without tender to an outfit who supposedly will protect the Great Barrier Reef. Nice serve, Josh Frydenberg. Game set and match.

GEE, I'm getting more bites than a nudist in the mangroves at Hexham.

THERE is a picture of me on the back page of the Herald, circa summer 1969, at Lambton Baths about to touch for third in the open 50 metre final (ran out of oats) and as I observed, you had to be a copper to hold the starter's gun then, so it could well have been Mr John Ure who held it.