Letters
Off the rails
Sir: How sad to see Ian Waller, a sensitive man where railways are concerned, repeating the old canard of the Great Cen- tral as a 'useless railway' (26 March). It may have been the last main line, but in many ways it was almost the first. The Great Cen- tral pioneers regarded London (and Marylebone) as merely the half-way stage ort a direct thrust to Paris via a Channel Tunnel. For this reason, the GCR's London Extension was constructed to the Berne loading gauge standards, making it the only Purpose-built main line route in Britain capable of accepting Continental-sized vehicles.
What a pity that the first world war in- tervened and scuttled hopes of a start on the Channel link. Paris to Manchester direct in maybe eight hours with a pause at maligned Marylebone would actually have changed the transport history of Europe. Had not the Great Central's southward extension been itself consigned to history by closure, then that fascinating possibility would still exist.
If the GCR were still intact, then a wide area of central England and the industrial heartland of the North would have enjoyed direct access to the Continental rail net- work. Useless? No, merely another wayside Pause in the long story of missed oppor- tunities in Britain's marsupial-like transport history.
Richard Cottrell, MEP Combeside,
Back Lane, Croscombe, Wells,
Somerset
Previous page
