Dear Sir/Madam,

I was very pleased to reads today's editorial encouraging Congress not to neglect America's railways.

However, the railways are far more important than even the author seems to realise.

Unlike current U.S. and West European levels of motorisation and air travel, rail transport is SUSTAINABLE on a planet with limited resources, a finite carrying capacity and a population heading towards the 7 - 9 billion mark.

We are plundering and squandering our planet's natural resources - disrupting its climate and life-supporting ecosystems in the process - for the pleasure and convenience of current means of mass transportation.

The present, understandable preoccupation with combating the evil forces that struck America on the September 11, is distracting us from the stupidity and selfishness of our own - unrecognised because so normal - behaviour, for which coming generations, including our own children and grandchildren, will surely curse us.