From The Metro: It's a bit rich Bob Crow complaining about the cost of rail tickets for passengers (Metro, Mon). Where does he think the money comes from to pay for the disproportionately high wages and conditions his members keep going on strike for? Stephen Ware, Nottinghamshire. Speak of the Devil... Labour MP John Denham (Metro, Mon) has forgotten the basic premise of a national railway - that the revenue from more busy routes is used to support less-profitable routes to maintain a national railway network. The logic of Denham's thinking is massive Beeching-style cuts where railway revenues fall below a certain level. In any event, the figures he quotes are misleading as no private railway company could operate without public subsidy to the rail industry. That is precisely why the railways should be nationalised, saving passengers more than £1 billion a year according to independent reports, which will lead to fairer fares and better services. Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary. I'm with Bob on this one. Yes his members are probably overpaid slightly, so what? The extra pay they get is a lot less in total than the subsidies being creamed off by the corporates, and surely it is better for each of thousands of staff to get a couple of grand extra (liable to income tax and NIC) than for a few multinationals to scoop the lot and shuffle it offshore tax free?