SIR – Far from being against unions, I was a member of one for several decades, albeit not by choice but as a necessity in a closed shop industry.

What I am against is the abuse of power by megalomaniac general secretaries who inconvenience not employers but the general public who in the case of rail transport have no viable alternative.

That our railways are in private hands, although subsidised more than when previously nationalised by the taxpayer, is almost unique in Europe with the French Societe du Chemins de Fer nationalised around First World War time and highly efficient and affordable as a result.

Mass public transport is too important economically and socially to be left to the market, and I share the view that our railways should be brought back into public ownership so that proper investment on service improvements, not just profits, can be made.

DS Boyes, Upper Rodley Lane, Leeds

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