As an ex-railwayman, may I make two important points with regard to your editorial 'Time to sort rail priorities' (October 11)?

After the Clapham inquiry, the then Minister of Transport Cecil Parkinson, said publicly that there was available to BR "a blank cheque for safety". Those of us on BR whose business was safety very soon discovered that "blank" actually meant that the sum in the amount box was zero.

To implement one of the most trivial of the Hidden recommendations, that of providing every automatic signal with facilities for it to be replaced to red in emergencies, would have cost over £20 million for the Southern Region alone. Needless to say, this was thrown out by the Government, as were many other proposals.

The second point is that, far from being due to privatisation, all the signalling equipment, trains, and everything else involved in last week's accident were all designed, built, installed and commissioned in BR's day, before privatisation had taken place or even thought about.

Financial constraints leading to decisions which subsequent events have proved less than 100 per cent safe were made by successive governments, from that of Clement Attlee's to that of John Major's.

Since privatisation, Tony Blair's government has been no better. All along, the government of the day's response to "it will cost at least this much to do a proper job" has always been: "You must do it cheaper." As ye sow, so ye shall reap.

Peter J Townsend,

BRB Signal and Telecommunications Dept (Retired),

Sycamore House,

Acklam, Malton.

...With reference to the recent rail disasters the blame has been put on the rail bosses, profits before safety.

As I see it the whole of society is to blame. We are all striving to "get rich quick". Gambling is rife, lottery scratch cards etc, the list is endless.

The bosses or so-called 'fat cats' have turned this country into 'rip off' Britain, no matter what the consequences.

Half of the general public are waiting for the other half to make a mistake to claim compensation.

It is getting worse. Our caring society has gone. Let us all put our hands together and pray: "money, money, money."

H Chilton,

Pentland Drive,

Huntington,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.