SIMON Pearce (Bolton Evening News, Jan 11) thinks he has both First North Western, the Passenger Transport Authority, and myself, firmly in his gunsights.

Unfortunately, while his heart is surely in the right place, he does not appear to know very much about railways in general, or the rolling stock industry in particular. There are now only two manufacturers of rolling stock serving West European Railways -- they are, respectively, Alstom and Bombardier.

And with new diesel units costing £1m per vehicle ex-works, or £3m for a three-car unit, there is no way in which either of them would manufacture a unit speculatively to prove to First North Western, or anybody else, that it worked satisfactorily. Nor should they.

Of the seven or so locomotives manufactured speculatively since the 1955 Modernisation Plan, only the English Electric "Deltic" resulted in a production order -- and fine machines they were too. The same company's DP2 diesel, their experimental Gas Turbine loco GT3, along with two other gas turbines from, respectively, Swiss Brown Bouveri and Metrovick, along with Birmingham RCW's "Lion" and Brush Traction's "Kestrel", ran more or less successfully for several months on British Rail, but none resulted in production orders. And most of the firms involved went out of business.

Nor was there any reason to suppose that the trains actually ordered from Alstom would turn out to be such a disaster. Alstom have a long history of manufacturing successful diesels and electrics for France and Germany, and the factory they took over at Birmingham was well experienced. The last units to emerge from the production lines at their Washwood Heath works were, respectively, the Class 156 "Super Sprinter" units -- among the most successful and reliable ever to work on British Rail -- and the superb 14-car "Eurostar" trains, which even now hurtle across northern France from the southern portal of the Channel Tunnel at a steady 300 kph.

As to whether I should comment on the activities of Bolton's PTA politicians, in view of my professional employment, any such comment on my part would be grossly improper. With Mr Pearce's previous involvement in local government, he ought to know this already!

Peter Johnston

Kendal Road, Bolton