[/QUOTE] I see what you mean Dave. It seems madness not to reinstate a rail-link with much of the infrastructure still standing! I just cant understand why investment for the long term future of or railway network seems to be nonexistant in some areas! A bus route? come on am I missing something, what about all the polution and limited passenger numbers on a bus?
Anyway re the other comments re Air travel v Rail; for the short haul (up to 2/3 hours flying) it has to be the train due to all the security issues and having to be at the airport 1 to 2 hours before flight. Most airports are well away from city centres meaning more travel time and cost. The carbon footprint on that alone must be massive! The train - does it need an explanation? not to me it do'nt!![/QUOTE]
The trouble in Gosport is that BR leased out some of the land as soon as goods services stopped in 1969, so by 1970/71 there was an estate of 27 houses built across the trackbed at the west end of the terminus, and an industrial estate built across the trackbed a few hundred yards west of that, so there wasn't ever much chance of reinstating the whole line as far as the station, which is a fair way from Gosport town itself - probably why not many passengers used the trains in the first place. However, although the Busway is (allegedly) going to end up at a new interchange at Fareham railway station (useful to me IF the busway gets about half a mile nearer to me), it's not going to make a jot of difference to the massive traffic problems here. Apart from a road west leading to the M27 and Southampton, both of the other roads out of Gosport meet up in Fareham on the A32, and it's far too built up here to do anything about it. Although causing major concerns since the early 1970s, this is what the local government has done to solve the road situation: allow the building of large housing estates and flats, and all spare land or old buildings are converted into flats, soon to include the former airfield at Lee-on-Solent and Haslar Hospital. Gross stupidity doesn't even begin to describe it.
