I HAVE two questions for Euan Cameron, managing director of Arriva Trains Ltd (Letters, April 15). How much do you earn? How much will your wage rise be?

I'm not an employee of Arriva Trains, I'm a member of the public sick and tired of hearing about the ordinary company workers asking for pay rises in an attempt to make life a little better for their families, only to be told that they can't be afforded while managers and chief executives earn - and I use the term earn in is loosest form - huge increases.

Mr Cameron says Arriva is a subsidised business relying on taxpayers' money. Funny how no one used this argument when Railtrack paid dividends to shareholders despite the fact it wasn't making any profit. No one complained about taxpayers' money going straight into the pockets of private investors did they?

It's the utter contempt for the ordinary worker that people like Euan Cameron seem to have which annoys me to distraction. I suppose it would be too much to ask of the travelling public to strike in support of the conductors by finding other means of transport on one day a week instead of whinging about the service.

W Elliott,

Kinbrace Road, Hartlepool.

Updated: 10:24 Thursday, April 18, 2002