Reopenings offer choices

There is much talk about passengers being offered a choice of rail companies for their journey.

On some routes this already operates. Sadly, the late, lamented Wrexham and Shropshire Railway wasn’t given a fair chance by not being allowed to call at Birmingham.

Surely the best way to offer choice is to undo some of the Beeching closures:

Reopen Matlock to Buxton and reinstate St Pancras to Manchester services.

Relay Birmingham Snow Hill to Wolverhampton Low Level as heavy rail, and continue to Stafford Road Junction and reinstate Paddington to Birkenhead services.

Reopen the much talked-about Okehampton to Bere Alston route and upgrade services between Exeter and Waterloo.

Stratford-upon-Avon to Cheltenham is another route crying out to be reinstated.

The four lines I’ve listed could be done at a fraction of the cost of Crossrail or HS2, ease a huge amount of pressure on the current network, and reconnect areas of the country that have been badly served since those lines were run down and closed.

Also, the Government should stop washing its hands of the responsibility for rail reopenings, as local authorities are not fit for purpose.

A strategic meeting of passenger and freight operators needs to be called, and their views recorded as to where the problems are on the network and what routes need reopening.

It’s not rocket science, and the time it takes to reopen routes needs slashing. The Victorians would look on in disbelief at the shambles that is the norm today. Steve Price, Stratford-upon-Avon

all aspects intact rather than closure and re-forming for each bit after a gap.

How much this saved in the short term was questionable, but certainly meant that each project cost more in the end. London commuters got electric trains, but on so many lines the wires stopped short for years at places such as Royston, Colchester, Bedford, Heathrow and Peterborough. Even Glasgow had to wait eight years to close the gap from Weaver Junction.

For some time, BR had only 21% of its network electrified (the same level as communist Bulgaria, a country with which we would not usually seek comparison).

We have learned nothing in the years of ‘nationalised’ Network Rail, with wires cut short on both Western and Midland routes.

With the NHS clamouring for more cash, education in ‘crisis’, potholed roads with neither the cash nor tarmac to fill them, a rail network back under Treasury control would rise into the sunlit uplands and we would all live happily ever after! Linda Paxton, Annan