I wholeheartedly agree with most of the contents of Ms Fraser’s letter about the proposals to reinstate the railway between Longniddry and Haddington, and the associated passenger train services.

The proposed level crossing at Gateside is almost certain to be a non-starter. Whilst the UK national railway has one of the highest safety records year on year in Europe, level crossings are top of the list for the few accidents which do occur.

The causes are usually road user non-compliance with the associated signage and warning signals.

In consequence, for a number of years now, Network Rail has implemented a strategy of eliminating as many crossings as possible and not allowing the creation of any new crossings.

This is backed up by the Office of Rail and Road, the non-ministerial government agency responsible for safe operation of the railway network.

The proposals need to be far more specific about the proposed passenger train service expected in terms of frequency and stopping patterns. Haddington cannot expect to have a non-stop service into Edinburgh when there are so many housing developments evolving around the existing intermediate stations on the line requiring to be served, as recognised in part by your previous correspondent.

There are also significant line capacity problems between Longniddry and Edinburgh Waverley, including platform capacity in the terminus itself where there are very few options available to alleviate the problem, most of which are high cost.

I welcome Mr Crawford’s initiative to have a walk-out along the former route of the branch line – I trust the details will be published in ample time before it takes place.

Alan Mackie

Corporal John Shaw Court

Prestonpans