ROBERT Downes's July 16 article on the Department for Transport's unwillingness to guarantee the full number of extra train carriages for this region reflects a quite disgraceful situation, and shows yet again central government's failure to manage any credible transport policy.

This really is ironic, given that one of the expected benefits of rail privatisation was that a government could bow out of its previous British Rail involvement with the railway.

Now, instead, it is even more involved than ever before.

This saga means to me that the DfT (nicknamed ‘Daft’ in some transport circles) is still really the old Department for Road Transport, because I would bet that once a promise to build a new road had been made, the DfT would not dare to change its mind, so powerful is the road lobby. Whereas new train and tram plans are easily expendable.

It is thus a miracle that the current Metrolink expansion scheme has been agreed.

It also convinces me that the Treasury - which has killed off some public transport improvement plans, most notably the Leeds Supertram scheme - will not let rail really succeed, because the mandarins there do not want to see revenues from Vehicle Excise Duty and fuel tax decrease, which could happen if people really were given a true choice of how to travel.

Yet more people travelling by train (and tram) will help with the carbon footprint reduction objective.

I cannot help seeing a parallel between this inadequate rail funding and the current issue of lack of equipment for the Army.

The common factors being Treasury niggardliness (despite all the millions of quantitative easing from the Bank of England), and senior civil servants doing their jobs obstructively instead of constructively.

Readers, please don't give up on the railway. It can do good things if it has the correct resources. I am sure the fares would be cheaper if it was all back under one efficiently managed operator.

Peter Thompson Altrincham