Mr Beck is wrong to say we've never published detailed costings on the Lewes-Uckfield rail link (Letters, July 6).

We had an engineer's report on our web site for more than a year, but it's down now because the £40m was for an electrified, double track route.

The current, far cheaper, scheme would use the Southern's Turbostar diesels. But Mr Beck needn't take our word for it. In 1987, Network SouthEast quoted £6m, while in 1997, transport consultants Mott MacDonald, working for East Sussex County Council, reckoned on just £13m.

As for Dr Beeching and the line's value as a link to the South Coast, he should get his facts right before he starts slinging mud.

Beeching had actually left BR by the time of the closure and he hadn't been planning to axe the route anyway. It was the Phoenix Causeway road scheme in Lewes that killed it.

Mr Beck is also wrong about the route's role as a link to the South Coast. Even if we ignore the enormous expansion of Uckfield, Crowborough and the Weald, he seems unaware that the Lewes-Uckfield line was heavily used by trains diverted from the Brighton line right until the very end. Since 1969, Eastbourne, Seaford and Lewes passengers have been forced on to buses when the Brighton line is closed.

As for his defence of Mr Bowker and the ineffectual SRA, all we can say is that he must have spotted some virtue everyone else has missed. If reports in the Press prove true, Transport Secretary Alistair Darling is set to put this stumbling white elephant out of its misery in the next few days.

What a shame Mr Beck can't devote some of his obvious energy to supporting the campaign for decent transport links across East Sussex.

Brian Hart

-Campaign Director, Wealden Line Campaign, P.O. Box 645, Uckfield