Good to connect

Transform Scotland’s call for a “rail revolution” (your report, 3 March) seeks a range of improvements for faster and greener rail transport including measures to cut key journey times.

What the Inter-City Express Campaign is missing is the vital ingredient of connectivity and thus its argument risks repeating some of mistakes of both Beeching’s rationalisation and the case for HS2.

Here in Levenmouth in east-central Fife, despite the presence of a high-standard, mothballed line of under five miles between Thornton and Leven, our 37,000 population plus 15,000 in the nearby East Neuk enjoy no immediate access to the national rail network, while Scotland’s largest distillery, open-cast coal mines and Fife Energy Park along its route are among the compelling arguments for freight use.

Feasibility studies conducted in 2008 gave a positive assessment of a reopened line’s viability (at a 2015 cost of £78 million).

For the sake of inclusion, surely one pressing priority for Transform and Transport Scotland in any rail revolution should be to reconnect larger communities close to existing lines.

(Dr) Allen Armstrong

Levenmouth Rail Campaign

College Street

Buckhaven