Rail users are held captive by private sector monopolies that increase the cost of train travel massively above the rate of inflation.

Meanwhile, so-called regulation fails to deliver a good deal for the public on price, quality, cleanliness, reliability or frequency of rail services.

That is why the demand for an end to the fiasco of rail privatisation, which the Post rightly identifies as the root of the problem, will not go away.

However, Bristol's commuters and rail users will ask themselves why it is that commuters in Yorkshire could look forward to an easier ride to work from Monday, when almost 1,700 extra seats were provided on peak-time trains in and out of Leeds, while Bristol commuters experienced a cut of 1,839 train seats per day.

Across the River Severn in south east Wales, steps to open up new commuter rail lines to Ebbw Vale are under way and new services to the Vale of Glamorgan are already in place. Bristol's local rail lines to Portishead and those linking Filton and Bristol Parkway stations with Avonmouth via Henbury remain freight-only, and proposals for a suburban rail service fit for a city of Bristol's size and economic importance remain a pipe dream.

Let's bring railways back to the public sector where they belong. But rail users in Bristol and the West also need accountable structures to manage rail services similar to Passenger Transport Executives that exist in other major British cities where rail is growing. Perhaps then we might get representatives prepared to defend and improve our train services.

Alex Gordon,
South Wales & West Regional Council Secretary,
National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT).