SIR – Mr Morris (‘Not having a rail link won’t hold city back’, T&A, February 7) suggests Manchester has not needed a cross rail link. Manchester already has such a link between Piccadilly and Oxford Road (22 million passengers and 5.2 million, respectively).

He also ignores Network Rail’s advanced plans to build a link to Manchester Victoria.

Not everybody “in Bradford” lives in the city centre, and to knock down cross rail solely because all the benefits aren’t wholly linked to the centre is to miss the point.

I live in Saltaire, but used to commute to Warrington via the Piccadily-Oxford Road link. A Bradford cross rail link could have reduced the four-hour daily commute to three hours.

Before anyone suggests I am the exception, go to Platform 16 at Leeds station on a morning. There are a large number of people going further than Manchester who would appreciate getting there quicker.

Those living in Bingley, Burley, Low Moor (once opened), Shipley and Keighley all live “in Bradford” and cross rail will give them greater employment and travel opportunities.

To suggest Well Street would be blighted by a railway ignores the glorious visual appeal of the loading bays and car park entrances that the Westfield development will provide instead.

James Vasey, chairman, Bradford Rail Users’ Group, Lockwood Street, Saltaire