Routes exist for fast rail in the Pennines

THE Chancellor is right. Leeds and Manchester need a much faster rail connection. An upgraded Diggle route via Stalybridge and Huddersfield may be the answer, as he suggests, or a new line may be needed. Clearly, there is much 
to be considered.

If the Diggle route is used, then it must be upgraded in a way which does not reduce the number of local trains serving intermediate stations, some of which are crying out for a more frequent service.

Indeed, a new station is needed to serve Golcar/Milnsbridge.

If this line is upgraded for much higher speed Leeds – Manchester trains, then alternate services should call at Huddersfield, the city in the middle.

If we are to see the Humber-Mersey corridor as a potential “global city”, then phase two of any high speed upgrade must extent west to Liverpool and east to Hull. The Sheffield to Manchester train journey is abysmally slow, but it needn’t be. There is a very obvious way to rectify this. The route across the Pennines is there!

Re-open the Woodhead line as a 125mph railway.

This reopening, plus double tracking the current freight line to Stocksbridge, would also enable a fast and regular local service to run beween Penistone and Sheffield, calling at least at reopened stations in Deepcar, Oughtibridge and Wadsley Bridge.

Team behind our success

From: JN Gundill MBE, Managing Director, Pontefract Racecourse, Pontefract.

I WOULD like to thank Tom Richmond for his kind remarks (The Yorkshire Post, June 28) when comparing the 
attendances at our race 
meeting on Sunday, June 22, 
to the attendance at the Headingley Test Match.

I would however stress that all the credit for our success and in particular the “imaginative promotional work” should not go to me alone.

I have a dedicated and enthusiastic team who deserve 
as much praise as I do, particularly Richard Hammill who is Assistant Manager 
and joint Clerk of the Course with me.

He is in charge of marketing and promotions and came up with the idea of “Flat Cap and Whippet Day”.

On a less happy note, as a very keen cricketer (in my younger days) and a lifelong Yorkshire supporter, I do agree with the concerns expressed about Headingley.

It would be a disaster if it lost its Test “status”.

Younger faces of railway

From: Keith Simpson, Chairman, Pickering Station Group.

I READ the article “Keeping The Wheels Turning” (The Yorkshire Post, June 21) with interest but was disappointed that it gave an incorrect impression of the Group. In the article you state that the youngest member of the group is 74 and the eldest is 81.

Pickering Station Group is made up of both male and female volunteers. The youngest member is in their mid 40s and at the time of the article I was only 63 with the eldest in their early 80s. We also have a couple of hard working disabled men who come along with their carer, whose ages are not known to me but are nowhere near 74.

Recognition for Beryl

From: Mrs SA Netherwood, Crangle Fields, Stocksmoor, Huddersfield.

AT last, the recognition that Beryl Burton so justly deserves, becoming a posthumous freewoman of Leeds (The Yorkshire Post, July 3).

So much training, stamina and determination was modestly fitted in alongside the care of her family, friends and work.

Not for her the backing that is available for today’s competitive cyclists. I have no wish to demean their abilities, merely to point out how amazing Beryl Burton was and she deserves (at long last) to ascend the highest pedestal.

Calendar star remembered

From: Ian K Dodsworth, Station Road, Ossett.

I REFER to the report in your paper (The Yorkshire Post, July 2) about the passing of Marylyn Webb. In the 1980s, drivers wishing to park in certain areas of Wakefield city centre had to have police permission. I was Station Sergeant at Wood Street police station and received a radio message asking for permission for a crew from Yorkshire Television’s Calendar programme to park. “If it’s Marylyn Webb, yes,” I replied. It was her and she did.

Our caring doctors

From: Barbara Beaumont, Red Hall Court, Leeds.

WITH regard to all that has been written about doctors recently, I feel I must write to say what a marvellous team of doctors we have in our surgery – two male and two female, they are a very caring team. I recently lost my husband and the care and service we received in his last weeks at home was such it might have been their own relative.