Reader Comments:

Views expressed in submitted comments are that of the author, and not necessarily shared by Railnews.

• Peter White, St Albans

  All these fantastic responses but if you look closely at where the supporters of this project they are all situated at the other end of the country! interesting to see there views if the diggers were pulling up in their back garden......

• Justin Watkins, St Albans, England

  This proposal for a railfreight terminal was doomed from the start. It is necessary to invest in such infrastructure, but this proposal was in the wrong place, had the wrong access and had the wrong aims. You can't expect to add a large volume of freight onto a very busy passenger line. The cost of widening the Borehamwood tunnels is prohibitive. The plan did not allow for direct lorry access to the motorway network. I reckon a class of secondary-school kids could come up with a better proposal and business plan than Helioslough!
  
  Note to the DfT: open this out as a geography project to schools in the South East. Give them some funding for field trips and stuff. You'll get very good value and a plan that will work.
  
  
  
  

• Lorentz, London

  A good decision - would have caused too much disruption to existing services

• H T Harvey, Birmingham, UK

  Nick Hollinghurst, Tring, UK makes the usual statement of those with myopic vision or are of the NIMBY persuasion or more probably small minded road hauliers.
  
  100% of the trafic MAY leave by road
  There may be transfer between trains which will reduce that percentage
  More importantly the depot would be within a few miles of the M' way network .
  
  He of course may be of the selfish persuasion who forget the deport will save incalculabe road vehicle miles saving others fro the disturbance of lorries travelling at high speed, overloaded, and damaging our roads.

• Nick Hollinghurst, Tring, UK

  I believe that deliveries into the proposed interchange would only be about 50/50 rail/road - but with 100% of the putput leaving by road of course. So not really a railfreight project - more like a transport/warehousing interchange with some goods arriving by rail and at the expense of existing passenger services.
  

• andrew ganley, cheam, england

  Agree 100% with H T Harvey esp the pointless spliiting up of Cross Country,
  (if it aint broke etc..).also the TOC s being bus operators as well, which is what they should be sent back to do.
  The whole privatisation of rail has been and is a complete disaster watched with
  increasing amazment by every other(national) rail network.
  The latest debacle over TOCs blocking the building of St Albans Freight terminal sums it all up.

• Charlie Burgess, Eastbourne, UK

  I understand this was once an air field. If there is a noise problem it being a green belt site, then surely aircraft that ones made the noise they make in the same place would have people who lived near this site being expected to be able to live with trains working in the area. It would be greener then having it on roads too. Sell that too the department who deal with environmental issues.

• Charlie Burgess, Eastbourne, UK

  What about incorporating extra new lines for freight only, by-passing passenger services along the lines that would be effected?

• Brian Eastwood, Richmond VA, USA

  HT Harvey
  Go on! Attack the DfT. They have been the real villains since before the 1940's in their anti railway culture. All they needed to succeed in ruining the once world's best railway system were Transport ministers such as Ernest Marples who were either stupid, weak or shared their malice. Now we have at last a Transport Secretary who has his heart and his head in the right place but the funding for his plans is rapidly disappearing . What a tragedy!

• leslie burge, leicester, england

  Keep trying we've got to get freight off the roads.

• H T Harvey, Birmingham, UK

  Its bad enough that the Local authorities object to the freight terminal but to have the TOCs object is the most clear demonstration of the shear stupidity of rail privatisation.
  No matter how justifiable their complaint they are guilty of betrayal of rail freight operators and the general rail community.
  
  The quicker we dump this ridiculous privatisation and franchises the better with each time a franchise is put out to tender the cost to rail is equivalent to electrifying the average suburban route or resignalling 30 miles of rail line with 4aspect colour lights.
  
  With nearly thirty franshises having been let this would have provided the capital to electrify all the lines around Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds at least or the electrification of Bedford to Sheffield.
  
  Instead we Gained!!! frequently repainted trains confusion over fares, destruction of the superb Virgin Cross Country service, massive increases in rail fares AND the quadrupling of subsidy from the taxpayer which over the last five years would have enabled BR to electrify ALL of it main lines to their extremities and still have the funds left over to build a high speed link from London to Manchester.
  
  We have TOCs going bankrupt because they were counting on high levels of compensation from Network Rail to provide very significant funding. ie they were praying that their passegers would have poor experience of travuelling by rail. Since most of the TOCs are bus companies they gained both ways from these failures.
  
  These bus companies also benefitted from theenforced mystery tours by bus every weekend where rail passengers are given the pleasure of trips by road because Network rail has to shut down miles of rail line so that it can install new infrastructure that it has to close the line down a few weeks later to rectify poor workmanship/equipment.
  
  Success where privatisation is concerned is composed of two sylables
  Suc as in it sucs
  Cess as in - well I'll leave that to your imagination.
  
  At this point I would launch into a attack on the DfT but I must congratulate them on their conversion on the road to Damascus led by the Prophet Lord Adonis. A most welcome change.
  Who is Mike Mitchell?