It may alarm rail passengers but well said, John Parry (The Argus, January 4).

Similarly, my fear rises as a train picks up speed, even though Railtrack marks unsafe railway lines with speed restrictions.

Recently, I boarded an off-peak eight-carriage Brighton express on which engineers found a faulty coupling.

Later, passengers were transferred to a four-carriage train with standing-room only to London Victoria.

The carriages were so overloaded the suspension was bottoming on the bogies as they bounced over the rickety, uneven rails.

Cost-cutting on London Underground includes reversing worn rails - might this also happen on branch lines?

Modernisation of the rail and signalling network up to European safety and efficiency standards would need the equivalent of the entire defence budget for several years, plus much more private investment to make up half a century of underinvestment.

Upon privatisation, railway land, hotels, works, ships and goods yards were sold, netting billions of pounds for shareholders rather than being spent on modernising the rail network.

-John Stanaway, Lorna Road, Hove