According to a front-page report (The Argus, August 15), commuters in Sussex are paying tens of millions of pounds a year to subsidise train services in the rest of the country.

However, what also needs to be taken into account is the fact that people commuting by train amount to just 5% of the travelling public.

But the latest figures, for 2011/12, show that the rail industry received taxpayer subsidies of no less than £3.9 billion.

If the tax-paying motorists, cyclists, bus-users and walkers, who comprise 95% of commuters, did not have to make their contribution to this enormous sum then rail fares would again, according to recent statistics, have to go up by about 35% – considerably more than the 4.1% being complained about.

To borrow a phrase, “Never in the history of transport have so many had to pay so much for so few.”

Eric Waters, Ingleside Crescent, Lancing

So MP Caroline Lucas wants to renationalise the railways (The Argus, August 14).

I remember British Rail. Train fares went up every year, just like now. There was a continual decrease in passenger numbers – they have doubled under privatisation.

There were large reductions in the number of track miles.

Railway staff were often rude to passengers. On one memorable occasion, a man asked how long the train would be. He got the sarcastic answer that it would be about six carriages long.

Angrily, he ended up punching the railway employee.

RW Osborne, Southover Street, Brighton