August 10.

It was ironic that the letter from Mike Barry of the RMT accusing

Railtrack rather than the RMT of not being prepared to negotiate should

appear in the same edition as your article headed ''Union rejects

Railtrack's pleas on talks to a finish'' (August 6).

Railtrack has now made an offer of five days' intensive talks to cover

all aspects of the dispute. This would involve not only a final

restructuring deal but also the appropriate level of payment for the

interim period before that deal were to come into effect. The union

initially appeared to reject such negotiations, as outlined in your

article, but subsequent statements have been more equivocal. Let's hope

that they are in the end able to accept and that we can get talks going

to resolve all aspects of the dispute once and for all.

Paul Prescott,

Director, Scotland,

Railtrack.