Not too late to rethink HS2 line

DEAR Editor, It is not too late to stop or radically rethink HS2 and HS3 ( Post, October 11) .

There is already an alternative, prepared in detail by a team of experienced railway engineers. It links far more cities. It is far kinder to the environment. It would be far less disruptive to construct and far cheaper to run. It would cost £20 billion less than HS2 and HS3 and is called High Speed UK (HSUK).

They key is to build alongside the M1. That avoids more than 30 miles of expensive tunnelling– though 7.3 miles would still be in tunnel. It requires less bridges and is much less disruptive of property and of the countryside. To Birmingham the route is a little less than two miles longer than HS2, taking just 37 seconds more.

High Speed UK trains will connect to, and run on, existing tracks as well as on the very high speed line, as happens in France. The whole scheme has been accurately designed to a scale of 1:25,000, ready for a detailed survey to be undertaken. The strategic thinking has all been done. It has been carefully costed. HSUK has even produced timetables, something HS2 has been extremely reluctant to do because they are likely to show a loss of fast services to Coventry, Rugby and Milton Keynes, for example.

It is a national scandal that HSUK has not been taken seriously – presumably because of all the vested interests linked to HS2. OK, to change now would mean writing off significant design and preparation costs, but the saving will be tens of billions more than the money spent to date, and the extra benefits overwhelming. It is the only principled thing to do. Andrew Coulson, Honorary Alderman, Birmingham City Council