Sir – Chiltern Railways’ new Oxford Parkway station at Water Eaton will open in 2015 with fast trains via Bicester and High Wycombe to Marylebone. In 2016, these will extend to Oxford’s existing station.

Also, in 2016, electrification from Paddington will reach Oxford, cutting noise, vibration and carbon emissions. Then Network Rail will electrify and reopen East West Rail to Milton Keynes and Bedford. As well as increasing passengers, EWR will give Southampton docks new freight access to the West Coast and Midland main lines.

In 2020, Chiltern hopes to extend via Littlemore to Cowley. In 2021, a new railway to Heathrow with trains to Reading should open. Later Network Rail will double a mile of the Cotswold Line through Hanborough, while East-West Rail will extend to Cambridge.

To carry so many more trains, Network Rail proposes not only enlarging Oxford station but also increasing the line between Didcot and Oxford to four tracks and building flyovers at two junctions, one each at Didcot and Wolvercote. This should future-proof the line until the 2040s.

In November, three Wolvercote Lib Dem councillors declared “We were horrified to hear of the flyover plans and trust they will be dropped without delay”.

Now councillor Fooks has repeated her attack and added that she backs Network Rail’s plans for Didcot, Oxford and everywhere in between, but not the Wolvercote flyover. In other words, in every ward except her own!

Councillor Gotch even attacks rail electrification north of Oxford, threatening “The furore over the Castle Mill flats will be as nothing” compared with opposition to electrification beside Port Meadow and Wolvercote Common. But Oxford University could have bought land elsewhere, or built lower blocks with better architecture.

To decarbonise strategic transport, rail must expand. Opposing the Wolvercote flyover and denigrating electrification north of Oxford is anti-environmentalism.

Hugh Jaeger, Oxford