“RAILWAYS spending at 15-year £4.2 bn low”, said your headline (Echo, Oct 12). Well, it certainly shows. The East Coast Main Line bridges at Bank Top, Darlington, are now showing extensive corrosion, which would seem to require urgent treatment, before costs escalate.

I have it on good authority that Network Rail have been aware of this for a few months, and there is a suggestion in circulation that the bridges receive the same long-life glass-epoxy coating as was recently applied to the Forth Rail Bridge.

Lately, I note that one support column at the Neasham Road end on the south side has a prominent slab of half-inch thick rust-scale. I am not a structural engineer, but if this was my car, I would be somewhat concerned.

I also note that the historic coats of arms displayed on the bridges are faded and jaded, surrounded by grime and rust.

In 2025, Darlington will celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the opening of the world’s first steampowered passenger railway, the Stockton & Darlington Railway, but I do wonder what plans exist for these vital bridges. If preservation is not an option, what is?

M Watson, Darlington