IT is difficult to join in the general euphoria announcing the eventual (December 2018?) speeding up the Worcester/Paddington rail service by a whole seven minutes as reported (Evesham Journal March 26).
No mention of any interim re-doubling of the still-remaining two long lengths of single track at both ends of the Oxford-Norton junction sections which currently forces many Worcester-bound trains to waste away seven minutes at Evesham awaiting the hoped-for on-time arrival of the southbound service, thus clearing the single line westwards; whereas the same trains at Moreton, Honeybourne and Shrub Hill can complete their station stops in an average of one minute, as noted in the current pocket timetable.
If only a minute fraction of the estimated 36 billion (not million) to be squandered on the fatuous HS2 project could be diverted to track re-doubling at the aforementioned bottle-necks and restoring the Stratford/Honeybourne links and other revivals in the West Midlands.
All this is Network Rails responsibility, not First Great Westerns.
DAVID LEE
Harvington
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