It is good to see a local councillor weighing in on strategic transport issues (Trains through the New Forest: back on the right lines? Have Your Say, June 19).

Cllr Whitaker is entirely right to highlight the continued and understandable pressure for further housing growth across the conurbation at a time when the road network must surely be close to capacity.

Sadly, few elected officials seem to have the vision or courage to take forward what would admittedly be difficult, costly and contentious public transport developments such as the Ringwood rail link.

And as the comments from the chair of the New Forest Association and Ringwood planning committee illustrate (Daily Echo, June 16), fewer persons still have the ability to take a considered, holistic view of the long-term economic, environmental and social needs of our sub-region.

So let us recapture some of the pioneering spirit of the early railways and put right the errors of the past that saw the local railway network pared back just as Bournemouth and Poole began to expand.

For this is not a question of nostalgia or a yearning for the great days of steam, rather it is a necessity if we are to guarantee the continued prosperity and quality of life enjoyed by the people of Dorset and Hampshire.

Harold Le Roy, Malcomb Road, Bournemouth