Rail campaigners are blind to the strengths of road

Paul Withrington, Director, Transport Watch, Northampton NN2

13 May 2016

One abandoned railway alignment recently converted to a road lies between Grendon and the A41 in Buckinghamshire. The road serves a new energy from waste facility. See Paul Withrington’s letter

Norman Bradbury says rail carries more per track mile than the road system (Letters LTT 29 Apr). Well of course it does. After all, B, C and unclassified roads make up 87% of the road network’s length. The fairer comparison, albeit biased in favour of rail, is between rail and the strategic road network (SRN). Transport Watch facts sheet 1 shows that the SRN is used two to three times as intensively per lane-mile as is the railway per track-mile.

Norman bleats about the railway...