Rail into road is a 'weak' idea
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PROPOSALS to turn some railway lines into roads have been dismissed as a "weak proposition" by the Transport Studies Group in a new paper out last week.
The study looked at the possibilities of turning two East Anglian railways into roads and found that costs estimated at an earlier date by the Department of the Environment sponsored report were wildly inaccurate.
. Reading University experts Professor Peter Hall and Edward Smith estimated a cost of £30,000 per kilometre of track turned into road, but the Trasnport Study Group report by J. C. Cooper and D. L. Spaven found the cost to be nearer £250,000 per kilometre.
Investment returns
railways to roads is no solution to the problem of railway finances, "This is not to say that there is no case under any circumstances for conversions of railways to roads but a better assessment is needed as an analytical basis," says the group. It also adds the hope that it has restored some perspective to the question.