From: Robert Stephens
Subject: Rural lines’ increasing popularity

It is of no surprise that the few remaining rural branch lines, especially those serving coastal resorts, are enjoying a revival commercially.

It's the old story: if you make them attractive and value for money to the travelling public, they will use them! McNulty falls into the same old accounting trap. He says that they ‘suck up too many resources’. You have to remember that, like all of our rail routes, investment has been starved from them because the plan was, make them unpopular, so we can make the case for closure.

Convert them into busways? Nonsense! That would require billions which can be spent upgrading and providing even half-decent trains instead of the clapped-out "Sprinter" and "Pacer" (ugh!) DMUs and we can run direct trains from additional destinations elsewhere. It's called marketing!