Sir, Paul Withrington’s view (letter, Nov 11) that paving railway tracks would solve our country’s transport capacity problems is seriously flawed. A very simple calculation would reveal that within the limited width corridor thus provided, capacity of a rapid and capacity optimised rail service cannot be approached by even the most tightly packed of coach services unless they are coupled together.
With the additional considerations of energy losses implicit in rubber-tyred vehicles, lack of resilience to breakdown in the confined pathway within which rail operates and implicit issues of end-point distribution of motor vehicles and capacity for parking, such a proposal is ill-conceived. Rail is no more a total solution to transport in the 21st century than is road or the personal flying machines promised 50 years ago. Each mode has its benefits and its detractions.
An analysis of road, rail, aviation, marine and virtual travel could lead to a transport strategy that optimises journeys, minimises carbon, maximises personal mobility and generates time to write letters to The Times. If only vested interests could be avoided.
Professor David M. Johnson
City University, London EC1
Sir, The fastest train journey from Preston to London takes exactly two hours. I would not like to travel on a coach that covered the 220 miles in two hours on a road the width of two railway lines with the prospect of passing another coach travelling in the opposite direction at the same speed.
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Graham Gooch
University of Central Lancashire