Letter: Light at the end of the Channel tunnel or a disaster for the people of Kent?

Sir: Your feature on the Great Western Railway ('An illusion of railway grandeur', 22 March) and picture of the Thames Valley near Streatley proved timely in view of publication on the same day of the Chunnel route to London and of objections to this by valley dwellers in Kent.

For over 150 years trains have run on this line with huge advantage to communities at both ends and along its length, and with no disadvantage to the outstanding beauty of the valley.

Had there been a body of objectors to this route, they might have condemned generations of travellers to the long blackness of a tunnel instead of opening their eyes to this lovely countryside. They would, in fact, have been abundantly wrong as will the objectors in Kent prove to be in the fullness of time.

I have lived in the immediate neighbourhood for nearly one-third of the life of the railway, so I write with knowledge and understanding.

Yours faithfully,

E. D. SIMONDS

Pangbourne, Berkshire

22 March