Many thanks for your coverage (Freight trains damage costing us millions, page 7, July 7). 
Fellow readers might like to know that in Trevor Porter’s photograph, I’m holding a map charting 51 instances of damage noted in our area (central Bath 11, Bottlesford 1, Limpley Stoke and Freshford 7, Westwood and Iford 6, Winsley 5, Bradford 13, Holt and Staverton 3, Trowbridge 5.) Eight examples include costings totalling £6.5 million, which gives an average of £0.8 million per incident (pretty much the cost of roofing work at County Hall). 
So we are looking at something over £40 million for just a representative sample in one locality. That’s a lot of money.
In the background is Holy Trinity spire, now leaning towards the railway; it suffered train damage in the post-privatisation chaos of spring 1998 and was repaired with slow setting lime mortar in the November. 
More trains then caused the top third of the spire to deform - I saw it gradually go over from my office window. 
The spires at Frome and Salisbury Cathedral are also now markedly leaning and for the same basic reason. 
If a householder does serious damage to their listed building, they face criminal prosecution, but if you’re a large quango or a foreign company apparently it’s okay to wreak havoc on medieval buildings.
The stones inside Holy Trinity Trevor and I examined have been there since around 1150, but have quite recently cracked down the middle as the loading in the tower momentarily moves from the centre of the walls to the outer face (as also happens in earthquakes).
In my right hand, I’m holding a drawing of the Houses of Parliament, which appears to have a similar pattern of damage - with the Jubilee line extension responsible for catastrophic and simultaneous failures and a repair bill of £5 billion (and rising). 
It’s time our elected representatives at county and national level got a grip on the situation - and that our officials stopped their absurd charade of pretending it’s not happening. 
The stone trains which pass County Hall weigh up to 5,000 tonnes and travel a 60mph. A nuclear bunker complex in  the embankment is channelling vibration under the main building and up the front wall, causing the roof to shake about and accelerate decay of the tiles (the same is happening at Bradford’s Tithe Barn), which English Heritage privately admitted was due to speed of trains. 
If work is only lasting a quarter of the time expected, it can’t just be down to faulty materials (Railtrack equally observed that track was only lasting a fifth of its expected life).
Moderate train speed/weight and decent maintenance of the line would solve most of the problems but as things stand, passengers are paying a huge subsidy (to make freight appear profitable) in ticket prices to pay for infrastructure repairs or taxpayers along the route are expected to pay the price for the industry’s inadequacies. 
Martin Valatin, Dip Arc
St Margaret’s Hill
Bradford on Avon