Why 1,300 new homes build case for reversing Beeching cut and restoring Ripon’s rail link – Yorkshire Post letters

I READ with interest that 1,300 new homes are to be built in Ripon on land to be vacated by the MoD. This is likely to introduce at least an extra 1,500 cars on to the streets of this small city.

Tom Richmond: Fed up with overcrowding on the trains? Consider yourself lucky

However I haven’t read anything about all these extra people and vehicles providing enhanced justification for the reopening of the rail line from Harrogate to Ripon.

Could Ripon rail link be revived?

We have owned a static caravan on a site a few miles from Ripon for the past eight or so years and I have always thought that Ripon fails to live up to its potential, and that a major reason for this is the lack of a rail connection to the national network such as that enjoyed by more thriving towns like Ilkley or Yarm.

However I don’t hold out much hope. The excellent scheme to reopen the line between Skipton and Colne is to be subject to yet another delaying review of options.

That’s the way we do things in this country and why our public transport system is so poor. And then Jeremy Corbyn promises to revolutionise rail travel in the North – this from a party that has never funded the electrification of any part of the rail network in West Yorkshire.

What do other readers think? What about Ripon residents?