by Luke Cross
lukecross@trinitysouth.co.uk
THE prospect of European freight trains roaring through South Bucks should not be taken seriously and the supposed benefits of the latest scheme are 'simply an illusion'.
These are the claims of Peter Hardy and Neil Mathers, who for the last decade have dismissed a proposed freight rail link along the Chiltern Railways line through Beaconsfield, Gerrards Cross and Denham.
Central Railway has not given up its vision of a route from Liverpool through the Channel Tunnel to northern France via South Bucks.
Kelvin Hopkins, MP for Luton North, secured an adjournment debate for his EuroRail Freight Route group last month, and used the platform to lobby the Government to consider a separate 'super gauge' freight rail link from Scotland to France, using a similar route and taking five million lorries off the roads and on to rail.
Neither group has financial backing, although Central Railway says it is in discussions with potential investors for£ 6bn.
Peter Hardy, leader of South Bucks District Council and a Gerrards Cross resident, who helped set up the Local Authorities Central Railway Consortium in 2000 to fend off the project, has categorically dismissed both proposals. He said: "This over-ambitious and flawed freight line has
been proved to be economically unviable."
A parliamentary bill for the Central Railway project was thrown out by the vast majority of MPs back in 2004 for financial and environmental reasons.
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