Does George Simms (Opinion, December 21) think the government has a magic wand to put the railways back as they were before they were privatised and before the previous government underfunded them for 18 years?

This is the crux of the problem: The splitting of the system into so many pieces has made matters worse, with so much of the work having been handed out to contractors without the same knowledge as the British Rail staff.

Railtrack could not have examined very closely what it was buying.

We mustn't forget the words of Sir George Young, previous Tory minister of transport. In the run-up to privatisation, he said we would have a better railway in every sense, including safety, which would cost the taxpayer less.

The present government is having to pour billions into the system to bring it back to anywhere near normal and it will take time to see the benefits.

As an old-time railwayman with nearly 50 years' service - now retired - I, like my fellow railwaymen, am appalled and saddened.

-V.A. Gander, Balcombe, West Sussex