A PARISH council chairman has claimed there "isn't a hope in hell" of the Harrogate-Ripon-Northallerton railway line being reopened.

The comments of Councillor Rowly Curtis, chairman of Littlethorpe Parish Council, near Ripon, came as moves to reinstate the line, closed as part of the Beeching cuts in the 1960s, gather steam.

North Yorkshire County Council is to press ahead with a feasibility study into the potential of reopening the line, a pledge included in its Transport Plan 2001-2006.

Ripon City Council's railway reinstatement steering group will also meet soon to start work on an action plan to be submitted to Ripon City Partnership, in a bid for cash towards the feasibility study. The partnership was recently given £3m from the Government's Single Regeneration Budget.

However, fears are growing am-ong some residents at Littlethorpe, where homes have been built along the old track, that trains could again run through the community.

Coun Curtis, a member of the steering group, said Ripon did not have a big enough population to support a profitable railway and the idea of re-routing North-East freight via Ripon and Harrogate would just delay passenger trains.