I WAS pleased to read about the proposals for bids to be made to the Strategic Rail Authority for new stations at Haxby, Strensall and possibly York Hospital (September 4).

However, I was dismayed to read councillors' are considering giving £5,000 towards a study into the restoration of the York to Beverley rail route which was closed and lifted after the Beeching Report recommendations in the 1960s.

Any money spent on such a study would be totally wasted because the numbers of potential passengers who might use the service rather than a car or bus would be small and would not justify the huge capital cost.

It should be borne in mind that there is an existing York to Hull service via Selby with good connections to Beverley.

Elsewhere services have been re-instated but only on routes with large potential passenger numbers and, in the main, where the existing track and signalling infrastructure was still in place - the Robin Hood line from Nottingham to Mansfield and Worksop, for example.

David Randon,

Blue Slates Close,

Wheldrake, York.

Updated: 10:22 Friday, September 19, 2003