DESPITE the recent comments of GMPTE transport management head Bill Tyson, it seems to me GMPTE are attempting to ride roughshod over the views of local people in foisting this busway scheme upon us.

I have yet to meet anyone who backs the idea, and their questionnaire in the most recent publicity brochure is, to say the least, loaded.

The announcement in The Journal to re-instate Kenyon station is the only sensible item in the whole equation. But why go halfway? Well, money of course.

It seems the GMPTE are frightened to death of spending similar amounts in this part of the Manchester conurbation as, for example in comparison to Eccles, where the cost of the tramway system is now quoted at £160 million.

Now, wherever Xanadu is sited, (and I happen to think it's in the wrong place) a direct rail link is the obvious and most beneficial means of persuading car users on to public transport. Yes, Mr Tyson, we all know it will cost more than the crazy busway, but what's good for the goose is good for the gander: after all, who wants to change mode of transport for the sake of a mile or two!

As for buses from Wigan North Western to Xanadu - haven't we already a proliferation of Leigh-Wigan services, some of which are totally unreliable?

This is Leigh's last chance of ever being reconnected to the rail network, the last opportunity of redressing the wrongs of 1969 when, because of the land requirement for the M602 motorway at Eccles, the through line from Kenyon, via Leigh and Tyldesley to Eccles, was closed by the then Labour Government.

By incorporating a rail link within the Xanadu proposals a great public service for ourselves and future generations can be achieved, but only if our representatives act NOW.

D J Sweeney

Wigan Road

Leigh

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.