Road practicalities

I UNDERSTAND the concerns about the A14 (Letters, October 10) but whoever lives near an A or M road has the same problems. Ours is a small island with a population growing at an alarming rate. With it comes the need for more supplies, a great deal of whic

I UNDERSTAND the concerns about the A14 (Letters, October 10) but whoever lives near an A or M road has the same problems.

Ours is a small island with a population growing at an alarming rate. With it comes the need for more supplies, a great deal of which come by sea into our ports.

To have this amount moved by rail would be impossible. We do not have the amount of track to support this or big enough stations to unload and store freight, as this would take a lot of land and some very big cranes.

Unfortunately, the companies also run what we call a "just in time" service, which means things are required for delivery when shops are just about to run out of stock.

To have this system on the railways would also be difficult, with trains not running due to the leaves on the track or the wrong sort of snow on the line, not forgetting industrial action.

You still then have to move goods to delivery points, and using small vans would just increase the number of engines running, with their emissions causing pollution. It is very easy to sit at home with these ideas but, if you remove the tracks, it is not so easy to put them back if it does not work.

SIMON CARTWRIGHT, Sandfields Road, St Neots