Mean North-South levelling up is off the rails?

would be to run a Leeds to Manchester non-stop service twice an hour. RICHARD S. GREENWOOD,

Rochdale, Gtr Manchester. AFTER announcing the HS2 link to Leeds is to be scrapped, we’ve been told alternative infrastructure changes will be so much better. So why isn’t the Government also scrapping the link to Manchester?

BILL McKINNON, Leeds. NOW parts of HS2 and HS3 have been shelved, I bet we won’t have to wait long before they announce Crossrail 2 and Terminal 6 at Heathrow.

JOHN VARLEY, Doncaster, S. Yorks.

THE Government is so short-sighted. A TransPennine fast train would ease considerably the traffic on the congested M62, which is a death trap with no hard shoulder in many sections.

Name and address supplied. I AM one of the many thousands of people along the route of the HS2 project who is never listened to. Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is complaining the North has been short-changed on rail infrastructure. Well, he can have it and everything that goes with it: countryside destruction, homes demolished or devalued, farm land lost, road closures, noise, pollution and building works for up to 20 years. It’s time to scrap this unwanted project in its entirety. Just because £10 billion has been spent already doesn’t mean you pour another £200 billion into it to save face. Give the North what they want: a train service East to West. And give the South back the countryside, peace and quiet we once enjoyed.

BARBARA COOPER, Chetwode, Bucks. HS2 is a costly white elephant, especially as since the pandemic more people are working from home and not commuting between London and Birmingham.