September 29: Excuses on Leeds to Ilkley rail service don’t add up

I TRAVELLED on the Wharfedale Line (Tom Richmond, The Yorkshire Post, September 25) for many years back in the last century while it was still in BR hands and the crowding was endemic then. Reading your correspondent’s piece this morning, it is apparent that a bad situation has worsened through an increase in housing along the route coupled with a lack of investment and will to resolve problems by the railway companies.

The two reasons given for not running additional trains are red herrings. Firstly, longer trains can be run. With electronic door locking, the train can pull into a shorter platform and only the carriages on that platform need have the doors enabled to open. Passengers boarding are then able to move throughout the train.

The second excuse, the single line section, really is a case of a lack of will and management by the rail company to resolve the issue. There is no physical reason why additional trains cannot run over the section with modern, clever signalling systems to maximise capacity. Furthermore, what is preventing the operator from stabling additional trains at the Ilkley end of the line to cope with the rush hour period and using those same train sets to bring people home again in the evening?

To ensure the operator provides a service that is fit for purpose requires irresistible pressure from its customers. I suggest that instead of moaning about but accepting the problem, they band together to strongly influence the result of the next round of contract allocations. After all, as your correspondent noted, that is what saved the line from Dr Beeching in the first place.

From: Bob Watson, Baildon.

JAMES Bovington (The Yorkshire Post, September 23) was absolutely right to decry the lack of a Metro tram system in Leeds and the surrounding areas.

When we see the tram systems already in place in the UK, it is utterly disgraceful that one is not already operating here.

The suggestion for a trolleybus alternative is a second rate proposal that should never get off the ground.

Leeds City Council and Metro should keep pushing for a tram system until the door finally opens. Frankly, nothing else should be accepted.

You only have to look at the systems in Manchester, Sheffield and Nottingham (to name but three) to see what we are missing.

From: Arthur Quarmby, Underhill, Holme.

THE unedifying spectacle of the major Yorkshire cities sending their officers to squabble amongst themselves as to who gets what out of devolution is likely to produce the worst possible result (The Yorkshire Post, September 24). No wonder David Cameron said that “Yorkshire people hate each other”. We do not, but the bureaucrats are extremely envious and jealous of each other.

“Yorkshire together” is a rallying cry which all Yorkshire-born men and women could support.

Is it too late to achieve so beneficial an outcome?

EU takes lead on new jobs

From: Neill Schofield, Sheffield.

I WAS sorry to read that Drax power station is pulling out of the White Rose carbon capture project. I hope that somehow it will still go ahead (The Yorkshire Post, September 26).

It’s worth remembering that the European Union committed over £200 million to this project, to create the first carbon capture power station in Europe. It would have created over 4,000 jobs here in Yorkshire, with the potential for far more from the opportunities to export the technology and expertise.

But the British Government has pulled the rug out from under Drax’s involvement.

So just like when the coal mines were closed, it is the European Union that takes seriously creating new jobs here in Yorkshire. Where is the British Government’s support?

From: Mike Dods, Leeds.

IT seems to me that it is the European Union that is trying to create new jobs in Yorkshire and the British Government scuttling them. Maybe Yorkshire should stay in Europe and leave the UK!

From: Dr Glyn Powell, Bakersfield Drive, Kellington.

I FIND it totally abhorrent and illogical that the Government is preparing to spend hundreds of millions of pounds replacing the Trident nuclear missile system, yet refuses to spend only a fraction of this amount keeping both Eggborough and Ferrybridge power stations open.

Vote loser

From: John Watson, Leyburn.

WHEN the world is crying out for more food, Jeremy Corbyn has appointed a vegan as Shadow Environment Secretary. If the Labour party think they are going to get the rural vote, they are being very optimistic.

Beyond price

From: Phyllis Capstick, Hellifield, Skipton.

I WONDER if the reason some super rich politicians hate us “plebs” is because we have the greatest wealth of all; we live content on little, while they will never live content on however much they have.