Another blast from the taxi industry
20, 06 08 19:55
The letter from Jane Batchelor objects to the 'St Andrews bias' of the campaign and alleges that building a railway would be environmentally bad. The effect of the increasing number of cars, including all the ones Ms Batchelor insists that people always use rather than any public transport at holiday weekends, is apparently of no consequence. She also claims that Starlink is proposing a station without extra car-parking and so would only be accessible on foot or by bicycle; I have no idea whence that idea has come.
She claims that I dismissed the findings of a study. Would that be the one from nearly 10 years ago which only looked at passengers already using Leuchars rather than finding potential new ones, and which even Fife Council agreed was flawed and was not by any means the last word on the subject? Or would it be the Dundee-led one, which only considered St Andrews as one end of a journey to or from Tayside? Or the latest one, which did say that St Andrews should be further investigated but which Fife Council ignored? The truth is that there has never been a proper investigation into the restoration of a St Andrews rail service and it is high time that there was.
Finally Ms Batchelor says that St Andrews people 'are too posh to get on a bus' - a strange comment from the chair of a taxi association! The point is that for whatever reason St Andreans, and people visiting or working in the town, are in the main not taking the bus so the existing services are clearly not sufficient.
I'm afraid this looks like another blinkered view from the taxi business, not realising that their business would probably be boosted by a railway rather than harmed.
She claims that I dismissed the findings of a study. Would that be the one from nearly 10 years ago which only looked at passengers already using Leuchars rather than finding potential new ones, and which even Fife Council agreed was flawed and was not by any means the last word on the subject? Or would it be the Dundee-led one, which only considered St Andrews as one end of a journey to or from Tayside? Or the latest one, which did say that St Andrews should be further investigated but which Fife Council ignored? The truth is that there has never been a proper investigation into the restoration of a St Andrews rail service and it is high time that there was.
Finally Ms Batchelor says that St Andrews people 'are too posh to get on a bus' - a strange comment from the chair of a taxi association! The point is that for whatever reason St Andreans, and people visiting or working in the town, are in the main not taking the bus so the existing services are clearly not sufficient.
I'm afraid this looks like another blinkered view from the taxi business, not realising that their business would probably be boosted by a railway rather than harmed.