I READ the letters pressing for the re-opening of the LSWR railway line between Tavistock and Exeter via Okehampton with increasing incredulity. It is suggested that a small amount of compulsory purchase would allow the reinstatement of the permanent way.
While I agree that few tears would be likely to be shed over the demolition of the West Devon Council offices, what outrageous callousness to propose the expulsion of the inhabitants of Quant Park and the Headmaster of Kelly College for the benefit of, let's face it, the handful of people who would use the service.
There is no prospect of the line ever making any money; it would, therefore, always be under the thrall of whichever political grouping is holding the purse strings.
Let's be realistic: the day of this kind of rural railway is gone for ever. Let's enjoy the magnificent Viaduct Walk or the cycle track with its pungent reminders of the Railways' heyday, but to imagine that those days can be brought back would leave us with an expensive folly of monstrous proportions.
Andrew M Wilson
Tremayne Rise
Tavistock