Sir, With reference to the comments made by Mr Hilton (Letters, February 4, Rail firms must work together'), I feel compelled to raise a couple of points.

Firstly, the privatised train operating companies that operate passenger services are under considerable pressure for their services not to incur delays not only because this affects the particular service in question, but also because it can have a knock-on effect on other services.

Network Rail impose considerable financial penalties on train operators when such incidents occur and while I appreciate Mr Hilton's annoyance at having missed his connection on the particular morning to which he refers, I can assure him that wherever possible, staff will endeavour to make sure that such trains connect as per the timetable.

So the instance to which he refers is an unfortunate, but not at all uncommon symptom, of a privatised railway network.

Secondly, Mr Hilton seems to be referring to train operating company employees as "empty headed", a comment which I feel is totally uncalled for and derogatory. Rail staff have a hard enough job as it is, working under difficult circumstances. They are, after all, human beings and can only do the best job possible in accordance with the constraints that they are under.

Ron Johnson, Kendal