LETTER: This is the right time to reopen Haxby Station

There has never been a better time to reopen Haxby Station. Just before Christmas, I met council leader Cllr Keith Aspden and Lord John Shipley, the Liberal Democrat spokesperson for the Northern Powerhouse, to discuss how we could get progress on a new station to serve Haxby and Wigginton.

With additional Northern services planned to run besides existing Trans-Pennine Express services on the York to Scarborough line from May 2020, the rail crossing barriers at York Road and Station Road in Haxby will be down twice as often as today. There has never been a better time to make the case for investment in our area.

In order to achieve progress on Haxby Station, we need to reassess where it should go, evaluate what the possible usage would be, and what supporting infrastructure might be needed to make the scheme a success.

Together with my ward colleagues, Cllrs Ian Cuthbertson and Andrew Hollyer, we have argued for the funding to make this study, and I am pleased that £50,000 has been proposed in the council budget to put together an outline business case.

In the recent general election, the Conservative manifesto talked the talk, but we still wait on crucial funding from the Tory Government to deliver this. Liberal Democrats on City of York Council are doing their bit; so now the Government must deliver on its promises.

Cllr Ed Pearson,

Haxby & Wigginton ward,

Orchard Paddock, Haxby

Station report is just another waste of money

So City of York Council is to commission yet another report (yes they have already done several previously) and waste £50,000 of Council Taxpayers cash (Money to look again at Haxby station, January 7).

Can I suggest they just ask one question in advance and save the money? Why on Earth would Transpennine Express want a station at Haxby, with the many extra passengers that would bring, when they cannot service the passengers they already have?

Steve Hutchinson,

Fox Glade,

Stamford Bridge