THE Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority's rather luke-warm response to their officers' suggestion that the authority should support attempts to re-instate passenger rail services in Wensleydale is understandable if frustrating for those who have long supported the principle.

It is, of course, in the very nature of the national park to be cautious about any form of development within its boundaries. The fact that members highlighted some of the difficulties that will be faced in re-building a railway is entirely proper. The Wensleydale Railway company itself acknowledges that there are many problems to be overcome, not least in relation to the purchasing of land and buildings put to different uses since the line was closed almost 50 years ago.

But the principle of phased re-instatement was accepted by the park and the company will welcome that. For many years the park's position on a project many believe to be fundamental to the future of its northern area was at best vague and at times even disingenuous. Personalities may have had a part to play perhaps, but there was nevertheless a deafening silence on the issue for too long. There may also have been a belief in some quarters that the Wensleydale Railway Association (the original campaigning organisation) was a bunch of overgrown trainspotters with a pie-in-the-sky fantasy. The last eight years have proved beyond any doubt that they are anything but, and that their plans have been prepared with diligence and with plenty of practical good sense and realism. To use a railway term, they are in for a long haul.

The national park's adopted position reflects a growing acceptance in Wensleydale that reinstatement has to be of overall benefit to economy and the environment. Long-standing readers of this newspaper will know of its commitment to the cause. It is to be hoped the national park's lead will encourage others to back the newly formed railway company in its quest to bring rail back to the dale