IT IS practically impossible, at the moment, to avoid articles and broadcasts about the Iraq war and the conduct of the conflict. Everyone wants to comment.

So I will restrain myself, apart that is from saying that had I been asked my preference as to where the West would spend a great deal of money on regime change and aid, I should have started in Africa.

When the Saddam regime falls, as fall it will at some point, the Iraqis will still have the oil to sell.

Many African countries have nothing. We are assured that this conflict is not about oil. I am reasonably sure it is not about sand.

Closer to home, I see a report has been published which suggests at least some of the cuts which resulted from the proposals in the Beeching Report on railways 40 years ago were mistakes.

I am sure that it is correct.

What I find more difficult is the idea that some of the lines should be reinstated. One of the lines specifically examined is that from York to Beverley. It happens to be the one I know best. I can remember it being closed when I was at school.

Each summer holiday my mother, brother and I would catch the train from Pocklington to Hull where we would spend the day.

It was one of our holiday treats.

I certainly do not remember it as being busy. The commuters who used it to travel to work and the pupils who came to school on it hardly constituted a viable service.

I should like to know how those who think it should be reopened are actually going to organise that feat.

There have been a number of houses built on the route of the old track.

Public examinations and badminton matches are now held in the converted station at Pocklington.

Large parts of the line have been sold off to neighbouring landowners. There would need to be wholesale repurchasing and probably compulsion.

Lines are continuous. There is no point buying 99 per cent of the proposed track. It needs to join up, and someone would not be prepared to sell, whatever the price.

The construction of the railways caused widespread disruption. The then landlords did not have compensation lawyers to back them up, and sometimes there was private profit to be made by investing in railways.

Selling to a government-backed agency would be a different matter. The cost would be huge.

That said, the congestion on the roads is not acceptable. The cost to business and private motorists, in terms of wasted time, must run into millions.

Neighbours who have lived with the Hull to York road for three years or so say how much more difficult the road has become to negotiate in that short time.

I often travel along the road, but the only day of the week when I have no option about time is Monday morning rush hour, taking pigs to market.

Waits of 15 minutes to get into the York bound traffic are not particularly unusual.

Yet nearly all the cars have only one person in them.

It is idle to pretend that just because there was a train people would abandon their cars.

What we need to tackle is the attitude of mind that dictates that the only way to travel is by car.

Fifty cars could be replaced by one full bus.

If there is money available to re-build a railway why not use it to make bus travel better?

Updated: 10:26 Tuesday, March 25, 2003