AS regular as clockwork and the changing of the seasons comes the annual outcry against rail fare increases ("Rail fares rise twice as fast as earnings", The Herald, August 14). Coupled to the reported disenchantment with rail services in general throughout the UK, the increase in fares based on RPI figures is certainly unwelcome (the increase in household bills since the Brexit vote reported elsewhere should be of more overall concern to the general public) to a great many regular rail users particularly commuters.

I will not go into the pros and cons of all this as regards travel at home but comparisons are odious with travel in European countries without due recourse to just how these services in any other given country are run and, more especially, financed.

The clarion call from the railway trade unions and certain political parties for state ownership/nationalisation of the railway industry (including Network Rail which is already thus in most respects) will get us nowhere. Exactly how would the railway be financed from government coffers both at Westminster and Holyrood? Part of the general "pot" competing with all other bodies for the necessary cash? Things may not be perfect but let us not go down this road – or should I say rail line.

John Macnab,

175 Grahamsdyke Street, Laurieston, Falkirk.