RAILWAY DREAM

Don’t you love British TV?

You know the ones I mean, where you see the main characters hop on a train from the village to central London for work, or a spot of shopping.

I especially love the carriages where there’s a table where you can work on your laptop, or do the Times crossword.

Meanwhile the gorgeous scenery flies past you, and it’s all so very, very civilised. It’s a dream, really. The dream of living in a country village, where you can ride your bicycle to the greengrocers, walk along wintry lanes with your dog – must have a dog – and come home to your thatched cottage with a delicious stew simmering on the Aga.

And yet you are connected to the city – whenever you want.

The rich and famous do live this way in the UK, but here in poor old Oz, the poorer people seem to be living in the villages, and there’s no real connection to the city at all.

David Totenhofer (May 13 Letters to the Editor) describes a railway dream that brings back the nostalgia of the railway.

The railways that we had – everywhere in rural Australia.

And then they had to go and pull up the lines and close the tracks.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to re-create this dream.

How I wish there could be some real vision for the future, so that the smaller communities could grow and prosper, and so that rural and city dwellers could connect.

Yes, David, I agree: “Build it and they will come!”

Kat Adams. Toowoomba