Rail line’s limitations can be easily rectified

AS Nigel Mutimer points out, the shortcoming of the Leicester-Burton railway line is that it has no north turnout at Knighton at the moment (“Consider alternatives to the Ivanhoe Line”, Mailbox, December 5.)

This could be easily rectified by demolishing one of the warehouse properties. A connection could then easily be remade to Leicester Station.

I last travelled the line in the 1960s on an excursion to Crewe loco works via Burton-on-Trent and was amazed and delighted with the small stations served along its route – Kirby Muxloe, Desford, Ellistown/ Bagworth – on the way west towards Coalville.

If we had cohesive transport planning, this line could now serve the giant Bardon Industrial Complex to reduce the lorry traffic using the heavily congested A50 and serve those employed on the site.

From the west to Leicester it could serve Ashby, Coalville, Bardon Industries, Bagworth and Ellistown where parking could be available for users from Stanton and Thornton, before Desford where parking would be a necessity, then on to Kirby Muxloe (needs parking for Leicester Forest East, as well as the village) before some kind of halt with parking near the A47 around the vicinity of Shoulder of Mutton hill.

The passengers could be served by high-capacity, battery-electric, twin unit railcars (currently under evaluation) and be solar or wind recharged.

Whilst we’re about it, could we not include some kind of link to Groby and Ratby, whose populations have increased dramatically over the past 30 years?

Rather than give us a tram system that Mr Mutimer seems to favour, it’s time for a rethink on a big scale. Let’s hope the likes of district councillor Gus Geary can induce government to listen before carbon dioxide emissions become critical.

Kev Taylor, Croft