Since its great days, Britain's railway system has been treated shabbily.

Our railways have been cut up, cut down, messed with and under-resourced.

Public cash has been poured into road building and subsidising road transport.

There appears to be a discreet antipathy to railways amongst regional officials.

Yet we have read something to the effect that out of about a hundred delegates at the South West Regional Spatial Strategy Examination in Public, all but one supported improving our railways as the way forward for regional transport.

The exception seems to have been Wiltshire Council, talking up its road plans which made no attempt whatsoever to interface with Westbury railway station.

Railways are the obvious solution to our transport and environmental impasse. The infrastucture is in place.  Our railways need investment and better access.

This is obvious to most people viewing the big railway network at Westbury.

It also happens to be Wiltshire Council's official freight quality policy.

Charlie Hill, in the cab, at Westbury, Wilts, in 1962

Here is a further page on a return of steam at Westbury.

Here are some energy-efficiency statistics on forms of transport:

Average passenger kilometres per kWh energy units for railways: 120.

Average passenger kilometres per kWh energy units for cars and buses: 40.

There is not much between cars or buses, but railways are 3 times as efficient.

Wiltshire Council subsidises buses, but won't give money for railways.    D'oh!

And indifferent WC is now withdrawing the West Wilts Senior Railcard option.

The Trans-Wilts rail line, via Warminster, Westbury, Melksham & Chippenham, parallels the choked A350 road (which Wiltshire County Council hoped to build series of bypasses along...) but the under-used railway is starved of support.