I APPLAUD Network Rail for reinstating the new train tracks between Charlbury and Ascot-under-Wychwood.

It seems trains are now valued more than ever, with a £67m pot allocated to the Cotswold Line improvements.

Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway’s (GWR), iconic iron-horse Cathedrals Express will fuel passionate memories with a steam-powered journey on the revamped Cotswold line.

However, it’s sad that living in Witney I have only a vague recollection of a railway network that once strode the entire region: walks over half derelict railway bridges and sights of partial, grass-covered tracks is all I remember.

Steam trains are magnificent beasts with their distinctive whistle and billowing steam plumes, but these days most of my adoration is reserved for Western genre films in which the mighty steam beast lumbers into town carrying the heroic marshal.

The decades-old decision to axe Witney’s railway however was short-sighted.

Witney’s last freight train rolled along the tracks in 1970-72.

The town’s current predicament of clogged roads and ever-increasing traffic is a consequence of foregoing the golden age of steam and the new, faster diesel trains that followed.

Charlbury, Moreton-in-Marsh, Evesham and other Cotswold areas are all connected by Network Rail and benefit enormously.

Is there a way to reopen Witney’s long-forgotten train lines and free its stifled heart?

Whatever the answer, it proves without doubt that the train is a valid mode of transport and not just a forgotten relic of a bygone age.

DAVID TINSON Moorland Road Witney