MR Perkin's letter (April 29) suggested that the Tavistock rail link would be expensive and slow, needing a change of train at Bere Alston. He wondered if he had got his 'facts completely wrong' and hoped that someone would enlighten him.

He quoted single ticket prices from Bere Alston to Plymouth for the peak and off peak at £3.80 and £4.20. He ignored cheaper returns and must be unaware of the Tamar Valley Line Carnet ticket, which will presumably be extended to Tavistock. These are books of ten single tickets, making the single from Bere Alston to Plymouth £1.80. The equivalent Gunnislake Carnet is £2.40. So, presumably a Tavistock Carnet would be somewhere between the two. A return journey from Tavistock to Plymouth may cost less than the higher price that Mr Perkin quoted for a single.

The cost of all-day commuter parking in the centre of Plymouth, plus the fuel, would make the car travel at least twice as expensive as the train.

The draft timetable circulated by Kilbride included direct trains between Tavistock and Plymouth taking just over half an hour. To the centre of Plymouth in the peak, the train is twice as fast as the car or bus.

Mr Perkin would like to see investment in the bus link. The bus is the appropriate solution for journeys to the employment areas around Roborough and Derriford but having to take the longer route via Yelverton and queue in the Plymouth congestion makes the bus journey time to the centre of Plymouth much inferior to the train time. The investment needed in bus only roads and significant bus priority would be helpful but would not reduce the bus journey time sufficiently to make it competitive with the train.

Ray Bentley

Bere Alston

I WISH to object most strongly to the ill-conceived plan to ruin one of the best towns in West Devon.  750 houses means at least 2,500 more people to a town without the infrastructure to cope (police, NHS or education facilities).  Hardly any of these people will work in Tavistock, and the roads are already congested at peak times.   

The proposed railway is a madness. Travellers are expected to walk perhaps up to a mile to the proposed station near Tooks Farm, spend at least an hour on the train to Plymouth - then catch a bus or walk to their place of employment.   

All of this for double or treble the bus fare from Tavistock to Plymouth . . . and then reversing the procedure after work.     Commuters will love this, especially in the winter!     

A far more sensible idea is the distribution of new houses amongst the villages who are struggling to maintain their town or village schools, surgeries, shops, bus service etc - thus helping rather than hindering.   

I don't know who concocted the core strategy plan but I would strongly urge them to stop playing with pieces of paper and stats in offices; get out on to the ground, see what beauty you are destroying, consider alternatives and try to construct a commonsense business plan which suits the history and demography of this beautiful town and its surrounding villages.   

Failing this, pack up your crayons and return to Zog from whence you came (and take the joke of a leafpicker at Abbey Bridge with you)!

John Webb

Parkwood Road

Tavistock