With talk of the proposed route of the reopened East-West Railway being in the press, I have always wondered why Sandy-Potton-Cambridge was closed, yet the Hitchin branch remained open? Sandy-Potton-Cambridge was part of a longer distance line, whereas Hitchin-Cambridge just seemed to be a branch. There is only two sizable town on the route ( Royston-Letchworth) the rest are small towns or villages with the station some way from their centres. If it closed Hitchin has access to London via the ECML and Cambridge via Liverpool street. A bus service could serve Royston to Hitchin or Cambridge, picking up and dropping off en-route. So is it a strategic diversion route or something?