WHAT masochism must accompany the alleged motives of national interest expressed by correspondents such as Mr Swan of Totteridge Avenue (Letters, February 15) when welcoming the Central Railway project!
One can only surmise that such supporters are either repressed trainspotters, suffer from major hearing defects or bear a grudge against their neighbours, as Totteridge Avenue would certainly suffer from noise pollution and vibration damage due to the proposed line.
When the M40 was constructed, did Mr Swan urge that it be built on an embankment across the Rye and along Abbey Way? This would have been similar to what he is now welcoming.
The scheme would hardly affect traffic flows on UK roads, especially the M40, as this is not the usual route to Leicester, Sheffield, Manchester and Liverpool.
One has yet to be convinced that Central Railway does not intend to use the line to attract transatlantic freight between Merseyside and Lille. The burden on our roads would be unaffected by this freight which is currently discharged at Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Rotterdam or Antwerp without travelling one yard on English roads. Central Railway is silent on this aspect, but its website shows the line ending at the dockside north of Bootle.
Of course if sufficient freight were generated in Britain, it would be sensible to build a railway to share the load. However this still would not justify environmental damage to existing population centres.
Does the new Eurostar link from London to the Channel Tunnel go straight through Maidstone or Tonbridge? Of course not; it follows a new route, much of it in tunnels or cuttings. Central Railway has already amended its route to follow the M25, involving a long tunnel under the North Downs, instead of going through London.
High Wycombe deserves similar sympathetic treatment and the Chilterns merit it as much as the North Downs.
Incidentally, the line would not improve our railway network. Its outsize gauge would prevent its trains from joining existing lines.
There are alternatives, Mr Swan. Think of High Wycombe and think of your neighbours' children.
D S Gray, Moss Way, Beaconsfield
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