People enjoy travelling by train. That is obvious enough from the support the public give to those railways which have been rescued by enthusiasts from the aftermath of Dr Beeching's notorious and disastrous assault on the network just 40 years ago.

Under his plan, 2,363 stations were doomed nationally, among them 80 in the Bradford area and the Aire and Wharfe valleys. The 5,000 miles of axed track included the Skipton to Ilkley line, which was consigned to history along with the Keighley to Oxenhope line, doomed a year earlier under a pre-Beeching programme of closures.

Fortunately groups of enthusiasts refused to let their local lines die for good. In this part of the world their tenacity and energy rescued the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway and the Yorkshire Dales Railway which now runs from Bolton Abbey to Embsay with a plan to link up to Skipton. Nearly 200,000 people travelled on those two leisure routes last year.

It isn't just the preserved railways that are thriving. On the commercial network some of the stations which were closed have reopened again to meet growing demand.

How disappointing then that the renewed popularity of rail travel, particularly among commuters, is not being adequately catered for. Travellers in West Yorkshire have had to put up with poor service in recent times and some have been forced, reluctantly, to return to their cars in an attempt to get to work on time.

Those running Britain's railways probably need to take some inspiration from the enthusiasts whose commitment and commercial ingenuity have brought condemned branch lines back from the dead.