BRIAN Druce waxes lyrical (Letters, January 22) about how the 17.12 from London Paddington reached Evesham in 1hr 39min 25 years ago, while the fastest current evening express takes 1hr 53min, and claims “the timetable remains probably the slowest ever”.

Hardly – in the early 1960s, the 4.45pm Cathedrals Express from London reached Evesham in 2hr 15min, despite only calling at Oxford and Moreton-in-Marsh.

The way people use the Cotswold Line has changed radically since 1990, with long-distance commuting from West Oxfordshire, in particular, growing fast.

While passenger traffic at Evesham has been effectively static for 15 years, custom at all other major stations between Oxford and Worcester, including Pershore and Honeybourne, has grown fast, so more intermediate stops are needed, which has meant longer journey times.

However, this increase in traffic has supported extra services for Worcestershire and this process will continue in May, when First Great Western introduces more off-peak trains between London and Worcester, plugging some of the current two-hour gaps in the timetable, and three services will have Worcester to London journey times of 2hr 7min.

From 2017 the electrification and resignalling of the London-Oxford route and new Class 800 electro-diesel express trains should bring a standard two-hour journey time between London and Worcester, rendering Sir Peter Luff MP’s campaign for this, reported in the Journal last month, pointless.

Sir Peter, his fellow MPs along the Cotswold Line, and those who hold office after May’s general election should instead campaign for redoubling of the remaining single-track sections of the route, along with electrification, which would allow extra trains to run, perhaps including some limited-stop expresses, and enable the Class 800 trains to exploit the improved performance electric traction offers throughout their journeys, not just between Oxford and the capital.

William Crossley

Moreton-in-Marsh