SIR - Well done to Felicity Macnamara for her piece (T&A March 22) detailing Bradford's bid for inclusion within the high-speed rail revolution and the necessity of a new city centre station. And fair play to the Telegraph & Argus for it's enthusiastic support.

As a city, for far too long we've accepted the hideous Interchange rail offer - almost convinced it's all we deserve? But a first class rail infrastructure is so much more than just public transportation - it's a confidence builder for a city in so many other ways, psychologically as well as structurally.

I was too young to ever see a train running through our family town in Ireland (Mountmellick) but the 'mourning' of the town's folk when CIE decided the rail link would be cut completely in the 1950s has never abated. It brought an eerie cloud of negativity upon the community and the economic advantage well truly bestowed upon Portlaoise, six miles away - and a town bang in the middle of the Dublin to Cork main rail line.

The pain continue's with Portlaoise very much a part of the N7 motorway route with Mountmellick by-passed at even greater speed...

Bradford MUST do everything it can to dine at the top table and not merely as accepting scraps and leftovers.

John Murphy, Cooper Lane, Bradford