Letter: Oh for a Brunel to put us on the right lines

Sir: The latest announcement that the proposed rail link to join our country to Europe will not be suitable for freight trains, because it will be too hilly, is hard to believe. For the sake of commerce and our children's prosperity, let us sweep away the present pathetic and dithering administration and appoint a successor to Isambard Kingdom Brunel to build us a sound and worthy rail system at once.

When Brunel built the Great Western Railway, some woods were spoiled, some gardens wrecked and the owners paid off.

If we are not to become a quaint backwater of Europe, we must today do likewise.

Yours truly,

LESLIE WILSON

Waltham St Lawrence, Berkshire

23 March