I WAS encouraged to see the letters (May 4) under the heading ?Let?s get this rail section re-opened?, and thought it would be helpful for me to respond giving the county council?s position. Devon County Council is very supportive of rail transport in general, and in particular is keen to explore the potential for re-connecting Tavistock to the National Rail Network. The county council was therefore enthusiastic when government launched its Community Rail initiative, as this seems to give an opportunity to explore re-opening to Tavistock. We are in the early stages of understanding what the designation of the Tamar Valley line as a community railway means in practice, and we are in active discussion with the Department for Transport and the new train operator, First Great Western. We have commissioned surveys to get a better picture of the likely usage of a train service from Tavistock, and we will also be doing work to investigate how much it would cost to re-construct the railway, to look at planning and land issues, and to estimate the future running costs. Once we have all this information we will be better placed to judge the business case for re-opening the railway, and to start exploring potential funding sources. Support from the local community for such a project is vital and I hope that your readers will get behind it as the project develops. Margaret Rogers Executive Member for Environment Devon County Council