DAVID Wiggins of Railtrack (Letters, October 15), can be reassured that the rank and file workers of Railtrack, and the firms they subcontract out to, have the support of the vast majority of the general public for the good work they do. After all, it's not their fault if they have to carry out inadequate management decisions.

The previous Conservative government seriously underinvested in the nationalised railway system when they scrapped the plan to adopt the safety system which automatically stops a train if it goes through a red light.

This system is currently used by the French and other Europeans who are light years ahead of the negative insular British.

The tragedy is that the Government is long on rhetoric and short on action. They want a cheap safety system which will only be 100 per cent effective with speeds of up to 70mph. With the advent of more high speed trains, this system will be out of date before it even gets off the ground.

Railtrack has done little to convince me that, in spite of its huge 'fat cat' profits, it is doing little more than basic maintenance and is only scratching the surface on improvements to track and signalling which are so urgently needed.

TOM CULBERT, Chesterbrook, Ribchester.

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