Trained minds

Through my letter box came a glossy document “Summary Case for a cross-border rail link”. The campaigners want a second Edinburgh-carlisle railway.

Since we have yet to achieve the original forecasts for the loss-making northern element of the proposed route, that of the first 30 miles of the old Waverley line ( from Edinburgh to Tweedbank), rejoicing, as the campaign group do, at its “success” is premature.

The propaganda is essentially a menu without prices, not mentioning the operating losses in running trains over the empty countryside between Hawick and Carlisle. The one estimate, of a build cost for the southern 56 miles, is now nearly double that of the £350 million Northern section. But the direct population (Newtown St Boswells, Hawick, Newcastleton and Longtown) is half that of the six centres linked by the first Borders Rail project linking the northern Borders and populous Midlothian.

Among many fanciful statements, there will always be the reality of the numbers. This project is running on emotional steam alone. PETER SMAILL

Currie Mains Borthwick, Midlothian