Sir – Mr David Bradnack asks (Letters, June 14) if trains are slowed to a bat-friendly speed through Wolvercote Tunnel, how much will that add to the journey time? The short answer to that is about 30 seconds. The tunnel is 130 yards long, so it will take about 2.8 seconds longer to travel through it at 40 mph than it would at the proposed 70mph. Allowing for deceleration followed by acceleration, the additional time will be about 30 seconds.

But the longer answer is that the journey time will actually be about ten and a half minutes shorter, because the current track is limited to 40mph (or thereabouts) all the way between Oxford and Bicester, while the new maximum line speed for the upgraded track will be well over 100mph for much of it. Also, the proposed timetable shows these trains waiting at Oxford station for 14 minutes.

I hope, through The Oxford Times, that the Oxford Bicester Rail Action Group would support this modest speed restriction to their new service, considering that Wolvercote Tunnel is halfway between the North Oxford Junction — where the trains have to slow to 25 mph — and the nearby Water Eaton Parkway station — where they will actually be stopping!

I hope that the OBRAG would also consider this: Wolvercote Tunnel is very close to Wolvercote Primary School, which sits adjacent to the track. The School is very concerned about the prospect of 75 mph trains within just a few metres of both classrooms and outdoor teaching space.

Children, it seems, have fewer rights to protection from disturbance than do bats. But they, too, can benefit from a reasonable speed restriction in Wolvercote.

Who would want to deny them that?

Keith Dancey, Upper Wolvercote