ROBERT Raffety of Central Railway is having a laugh if he thinks the development of his freight line would "greatly benefit people living in the Chiltern area" (Bucks Free Press, April 16, 1999). If Central Railway's scheme to build a predominantly freight line were to receive Parliamentary approval, it may well take some lorries off the M1 or M6, but this would be at the expense of people living in the south.

The lengthy construction process would disrupt the commuters' rail service, and when built, it is highly unlikely a busy freight line is compatible with a workable passenger service. The impact of both of these would only be to transfer more cars onto roads.

Many thousands of homes would be affected by the noise and vibration trains of the size planned by Central Railway would create. Households that today cannot hear or see trains would be in houses blighted by the detrimental intrusion of noise 24 hours a day from trains running every seven and a half minutes. The noise level would not be a background noise such as a motorway. The resonance build-up of heavy freight trains over three-quarters of a mile long travelling at 60mph would be more like the noise close to an airport from jet aircraft taking off.

Movement of freight from roads onto rail is a worthy objective. There are, however, well-established routes that do not have the huge environmental costs associated with the Central Railway scheme.

At the moment, the only thing with more momentum than a Central Railway freight train is the company's public relations campaign.

T J Richards

Ilmer

Princes Risborough

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.