SIR,

January 2009 marks a very sad anniversary for what, despite privatisation, is still sometimes called "public" transport services in the Wye Valley area.

It was in that month 50 years ago that passenger train services ended between Chepstow and Ross-on-Wye inclusive.

Goods train services lasted a few more years on both - in the case of the Chepstow/Monmouth line, mainly due to the sole surviving tinplate works in Redbrook, where Tinmans Green is now, which closed in 1961.

Although parts of both former lines are officially open for public use, it is unfortunate, to put it mildly, that objectors and planners are not prepared to allow walkers and cyclists official access to arguably the most spectacular section - that between Tidenham Station site, which lies just north of the A48, where the National Diving Centre now is, and Brockweir Bridge, in order to give at least some idea of what it might have been like to traverse the same by train.

H M Murdock