I READ with interest Railtrack chief executive John Robinson's statement that the Government had acted "unethically" because it failed to provide a bottomless purse - funded by the taxpayer - to his company (November 2).

Three days before the Government applied to place Railtrack in administration, I, and every other shareholder in Railtrack, received a cheque from Railtrack in respect of its latest dividend. How could the company declare a dividend when they had to go cap-in-hand to the Government for money?

If the company had no money why did they pay their shareholders a dividend?

I challenge Mr Robinson to answer a question: if a train operator was in the same financial state as Railtrack (ie bankrupt) would Railtrack waver any financial penalties owed to them by the train operator? No - so why should the Government continue to bail Railtrack out simply to pay the shareholders?

Railtrack has a fine body of dedicated railway men and women who have worked tirelessly to give the public a decent, safe rail network. Unfortunately, they were given no direction from Railtrack's directors, whose only thought was for the shareholder, not for the ordinary rail traveller.

I for one will not mourn the passing of Railtrack. The dedicated rail staff will still be there in whatever evolves to replace Railtrack, but the directors who paid the failures, like Gerald Corbett, a million-plus pounds to leave the industry, will, hopefully, disappear forever.

D Potter,

Lynden Way,

Acomb,

York.

Updated: 09:53 Saturday, November 03, 2001