THE recent renewed interest in a railway line connecting Oxford and Witney, as reported recently in your paper’s letter page, is to be welcomed.
The Liberal Democrats asked the county to support such a scheme some years ago, they also promoted a road/rail scheme. The county declined to support either. They did however appear in a consultation document in respect of the A40.
Your readers might also recall the Conservative Leaders monorail scheme and his idea for tunnels under the city centre at a combined estimated cost of £600 million.
Although the quoted price for the reopening of the railway line (approaching £300 million) or as a slightly cheaper road/rail scheme appeared expensive at the time of consultation, the relative costs of road and rail did not take into account the less polluting nature of the latter.
In our opinion bodies such as Network Rail always platinum plate quotes for railway re-opening because they always contain massive sums for contingency.
The success of the reopening of the Boarders railway out of Edinburgh, with ridership being way over estimate should encourage more attention to be given to the Witney rail reopening scheme.
Cllr Bob Johnston
Lib Dem, Kennington and Radley, Oxfordsire County Council
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