So the "possible" cost of restoring the much-needed Portishead rail link "might" rise to £28 million, perhaps with a delay of a further six years ("Portishead rail link still six years off", Post, April 3).

Over this period of time the real cost in terms of traffic chaos, wasted man hours and fuel, pollution, etc, will way exceed this figure. How many more studies and investigations are needed before the West of England Partnership actually decide to do some joined-up thinking and really kick this project into life?

Real common sense dictates that this should have happened 25 years ago when Portishead really started mushrooming.

With a little forward thinking, North Somerset Council (or previously Woodspring/Avon) should have included an additional levy on the developers of the various housing schemes as a condition of granting planning/building consent to raise the capital required. The missing three miles of railway would have been operational years ago.

All we seem to hear is that the figures must be closely examined to check whether a new rail link would attract sufficient passenger volumes to justify the expenditure. Any fool knows that it would work and prove immediately successful.

Other reopened rail links in the UK are already proving this as our roads become increasingly grid-locked.

Just take a straw poll of daily commuters from the town and ask whether they would prefer to gamble spending anything up to two hours driving into Bristol or take an easy 15 to 20-minute journey to Temple Meads by rail (or less to Ashton, Parson Street or Bedminster).

When not fighting amongthemselves, Bristol City Council seem hell-bent on pursuing the nonsensical logic of the "bendy bus", which they have been persuaded is a really good alternative to a metro link around and across the city.

It is not the answer. The infrastructure is ready to put into place with existing rail track or beds. There is currently a severe recession in the civil engineering and construction industries so that the work required to build a proper metro system is achievable at realistic cost and would also help to absorb unemployment.

This Government can happily find billions of pounds of taxpayers cash to underpin the banking system but why are our local government bodies (masquerading as the West of England Partnership) not shouting louder and really acting on our behalf to obtain what is a relatively small amount of cash to solve the region's transport problem, and soon.

Richard James, Nailsea.

THE Portishead rail headline encapsulates everything wrong with modern life in Britain.

Six years to wait – you must be joking. I cannot believe it takes so long to do such jobs.

The line should and would have been opened prior to the doubling of the population in Portishead. If only we had local and national politicians that think ahead and plan for the good of their constituents, not how they can be re- elected, in the case of government to the House of Commons gravy train.

Bob Bull, Portishead.

I AM concerned about the negative impact Network Rail's statements may have on those frustrated commuters in Portishead and the surrounding area.

We see the reopening of the line for passenger services as a major improvement to the transport infrastructure which would help promote travel which is safe, convenient and sustainable.

We have commissioned Network Rail to carry out the feasibility study as the next stage in a process which has already seen us purchase a three-mile section of defunct line in Portishead. I shall be speaking with Network Rail bosses to complete their study as quickly as possible.

We are behind the scheme but equally don't want to raise expectations unnecessarily. Equally, we don't want to dampen the enthusiasm our plan has generated.

Just because something is challenging to complete doesn't mean it isn't worth doing.

Cllr Elfan Ap Rees, North Somerset Council's deputy leader and executive member for transport.