Who is really to blame for wrecking the railways: unions or train operators?

I AGREE with Peter Hitchens that ministers and private rail firms have wrecked our railways, not the unions (Mail). Most Welsh towns and villages were once served by the railways. There were loading pens for sheep and cattle to be taken to market and goods sidings where freight was loaded. The Beeching closures diverted haulage and people on to the roads, to the detriment of the environment and small communities.

A new timetable put a school train back half an hour so children missed connections. No wonder a survey of passenger numbers then showed the line was uneconomic and it was closed down. The summer holidaymakers who used it were not even considered. The Post Office abandoned the railways and even transporting nuclear waste has been deemed to be safer by road. The public have been robbed of a cheap form of transport while handing over vast sums so private firms can make big profits. MOHAMMAD TAHLA,

Llanarth, Ceredigion. THE day that the railways were privatised, I changed from being a nuisance to a valued customer. MIKE SMITH, Stafford.

PETER HITCHENS’S diatribe about the woes of the railways ignored the historical, political, social and physical limitations. His sideswipe at the GWR Hitachi units suffering metal fatigue ignores the fact almost every train built for our railways is unique because of our small loading gauge, so the issue may not have been foreseeable. The industry would stand a greater chance of success if unions would work with railway companies, rather than fighting them at every twist and turn.

M. I. WATTS, King’s Lynn, Norfolk. tHE sale of rail and bus companies was remarkable for rampant greed.

Managers bought businesses at knock-down prices and sold for a quick profit. it’s turned into an ugly fiasco that would horrify old railwaymen.

D. EDWARDS, Leighton Buzzard, Beds.

I DISAGREE with Peter Hitchens about nationalisation. When the Government owns something, it can’t resist dabbling and this always ends badly.

COLIN WARBuRTON, Yarm, N. Yorks. tHE tirade against a railway gone catastrophically wrong was spot on. the Beeching cuts opened the floodgates to the madcap building of motorways. no thought was given to what would happen to the remaining lines and commuters in small towns and villages. cars were seen as the future, but the result has been ever-increasing air pollution that wrecks our health. traffic jams on motorways are part of getting to work or going on holiday. We’re told pollution will be tackled by electric cars, but what we should do is bring back universal train travel.

DAVID HARVEY, Chippenham, Wilts. I WISH the Government would take up

Peter Hitchens’s Treaty of Clapham Junction suggestion of renationalising the railways.

Mrs JACQuELINE EDWARDS,

East Lydford, Somerset. RE-nAtionALiSAtion of the railways is a panacea unless governments are fully committed to a long-term investment strategy to improve services. Despite Boris Johnson claiming he wants to reverse the Beeching axe, the rate of progress has been slow and largely illusory.

How ironic that steam trains with 11 coaches and full dining facilities continue to use the main line network. Meanwhile, a train travelling all the way from Plymouth to Edinburgh may have just five coaches and will be so crowded that passengers have to stand and the

catering trolley isn’t able to operate. D. SMITH, Sheffield.