Sir – I write regarding the article ‘New station would help avoid jams’ that was featured on the front page of the Gazette on 4th February.

The suggestion made by Witney Oxford Transport group that a new rail station should be opened at Yarnton in order to serve Witney to Oxford commuters is an interesting one.

Spokesman Richard Stow says that the £35m available to OCC should be used towards this scheme and not spent on ‘half-baked’ alternatives. Speculating that Witney to Oxford commuters would use a station at Yarnton, leading to a line extension to Eynsham some time in the future, seems to fit that description itself.

It could be argued that re-instating the Witney to Oxford rail link in partial form could help with the current A40 congestion but in my view a more ambitious ‘complete’ scheme needs to be considered. I have my doubts that commuters, having driven over halfway to Oxford along the A40, would then divert north-eastwards towards a station at Yarnton to park their cars and change to rail travel for the short distance into Oxford (presumably the alternative route to a Yarnton station would be via an already overloaded A4095 - passing Hanborough station on the way).

WestOx Monorail’s proposal for a rapid transit system between Witney and Oxford would provide a cost-effective rail link with greater frequency and reliability than any heavy rail alternative is ever likely to be capable of. A projected cost of £150 - £200m seems like a huge investment but £35m would be a significant contribution. If financed along ‘Private Public Partnership’ principles, perhaps on a ‘build, operate, transfer’ basis, the County Council could secure a valuable asset that could serve the commuters of west Oxfordshire until the end of this century. This is the time for forward thinking.

After many months of campaigning, it now appears that WOT have turned away from their original proposal to re-instate the rail line between Witney and Oxford and are investigating alternative schemes. WestOx Monorail would be delighted if we could secure the valuable support of WOT for a proposal that is certainly worthy of consideration.

 David Leach, (For and on behalf of WestOx Monorail Limited), Witney