Forget pricey HS2. We want local lines
UP BEFORE dawn to catch the first timetabled daily train out of Okehampton to Exeter for 50 years on the Dartmoor Line. There was bunting, The Hummingbirds close harmony trio in 1930s outfits singing Chattanooga Choo Choo (that must be somewhere near Crediton), a brass band and the local mayor. The reporter for the Okehampton Times had the perfect name for a great day for the railways: Stephenson. I asked the driver about his metal ‘key’, which was, in fact, a token for a single track line. Astonishing that after spending several million quid on the refurbishment of the track that they are still using this 19th-century concept to stop two trains being on a single line at the same time. Well, if it ain’t bust . . . You could re-open 100 local lines, which is what people want, for a hundredth of the cost of HS2. The Dartmoor Line saved £10 million and two years on the estimate. For a bit more of the ludicrous HS2 budget, you could sort out all the bottlenecks in the railway system and make it work better, faster, more frequently and more reliably. As we sped through a disused little station called Bow — one of those that are nowhere near its village, which almost made sense in the horse-andcart age, but doesn’t now that most people in the countryside have giant 4X4s — the family who live in the old station stood on the platform, safely wire-fenced off, to wave as we shot through at 75 mph. The driver responded with a flurry of toots. The Railway Children come back to life.
BENEDICT LE VAY, Emsworth, Hants. I AM delighted the Dartmoor Line is back in operation after 50 years. My sister and I spent many school holidays in the 1930s with our aunties who lived in Devon. Changing trains, we boarded the Dartmoor Line and enjoyed gazing at the wonderful scenery, cows grazing in lush pastures and sunlight glinting on little streams. We were met at Bow station by a cousin in a pony and trap to clip-clop all the way to the village where houses were lit by Aladdin lamps and it was candles to bed.