It appears that when it opens, as few as four trains a day in each direction will be stopping at the new Reston station, which is costing in the region of £20million to build. And in order to provide this meagre service, fewer trains will be stopping at Dunbar, in spite of it being a major residential development hub where £13m has recently been spent on providing a second platform.

I find this astonishing. It is totally out of step with the Scottish Government’s desire to get people out of cars and onto public transport as part of its green agenda. We have here much-needed new transport infrastructure but no provision of extra trains to make use of it. What kind of transport planning is this?

Given that they are the reasons that the new Reston station is being built, how will four trains a day in each direction stimulate economic development and provide realistic new and sustainable travel opportunities in that part of the Borders? And how does a reduction rather than an increase in the number of trains stopping at Dunbar relate to the £13m spent on providing a separate platform for Edinburgh bound trains?

If the issue is lack of capacity on the East Coast Main Line which cannot be addressed in the short term then perhaps the balance between the number of local and long-distance trains needs to be urgently reassessed.

Do we really need a train every half hour to London when only one an hour is provided off-peak on our local service along a major growth corridor?

Barry Turner
Musselburgh