Could old rail lines make a comeback?

ANY proposals to re-open the Beeching lines are always dogged by the great expense.

However, private individuals and teams of volunteers have managed in their spare time to relay run and maintain narrow gauge 27in lines for tourist steam trains. They even lay new lines.

Diesel locomotives are available to buy today of this gauge. They are used the world over in mining and steel works. Narrow gauge trains are much lighter than conventional ones, putting Victorian bridges and viaducts under less pressure.

Could relaying some Beeching lines using narrow gauge be a cheap, affordable answer to some of our problems? The track bed is almost always still there and in some places sleepers also. Three quarters of the job is already done for us. Is that not a better way of relieving pressure on the network than HS2? Sardinia has new narrow gauge railways all over the island.

A degree of too much PC

From: Ross Taggart, The Avenue, Eaglescliffe, Stockton-on-Tees.

RATHER a lot of years ago, I was privileged enough to be given the opportunity to study for a degree at the University of Sheffield. I remember it as being a fairly down-to-earth place, as one would expect of any Yorkshire institution; no longer it seems.

I refer to Professor Sir Keith Burnett’s column (Yorkshire Post, May 29).

The vice chancellor seems 
to portray it as an institution 
less concerned with such mundane matters as medicine 
or engineering and more concerned with multicultural diversity, inclusiveness, openness, etc.

Presumably the openness part refers to the door that any student will be propelled through should he or she be rash enough to criticise the prevailing political correctness!

A benefit fiddle too far

From: Alan Chapman, Beck Lane, Bingley.

THE revelation that Labour Party-dominated Leeds City Council is to reclassify the bedroom use of public sector rented housing (Yorkshire Post, May 29) is appalling.

This means that many over- funded benefit claimants can continue to receive funds from the public purse and deny much needed space to those in over crowded housing.

This is no more than a fiddle and fix-it based on party political reasons.

The public should be well aware that one man’s benefit payment is another man’s tax burden.

It again clearly demonstrates that Labour is the party of welfare.

Politicians and our money

From: Jim Buckley, Aketon, Pontefract.

Under the heading “No surprise that Government is diverting cash to Scotland” (Yorkshire Post, May 19) Karl Sheridan says that the revelation that the Government is happy to divert Brussels money to Scotland shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Why should it not surprise us? Because that is what the so-called European debate is all about. British politicians think that they should control all the money, and resent anyone else having any involvement.

So far as I am concerned, it makes no difference whether EU or UK politicians control the money. They are all as bad as each other. I urge anyone interested in the European debate to remember that the control of money is what it is all about.

The answer is simple. We say to MPs: “Show us how much better you are at spending our tax money wisely.”

Don’t hold your breath, or be surprised to see that they cannot show us that they are more competent to have control of our tax money.

A Chronicle 
of memories

From: Michael J Hankinson, Lowfield Road, Wheatley Hills, Doncaster.

What an excellent and accurate picture Malcolm Barker gave us in his Saturday essay (Yorkshire Post, June 1) on life in Doncaster in the 1950s.

During this period my 
father also worked at the Doncaster Chronicle and the Yorkshire Evening Post and the town was referred to as the “capital” of the newspaper industry. Many of the employees at that time went on to great things within and outside newspapers.

As a young lad during this time I was often given the freedom to roam around the offices in Scot Lane. One of my delights was to sit in the office alongside “Auntie Jocelyn” and watch her prepare her weekly article for children’s corner in the Doncaster Chronicle.

I am sure Malcolm Barker will remember the putrid smell of sour milk as you entered Auntie Jocelyn’s office from the sackfuls of unwashed silver milk bottle tops that children sent in for her charity work.

I always look forward to reading any article by Malcolm and hopefully the ink in his pen will not run dry for a long time to come.