HS2M READERS’ LETTERS

There is a glaring omission from all the talk about how the HS3 line will be integrated with other routes in the North.

That is the planned link stations in Manchester and Leeds. If the creative use of the west coast links to HS2 in Cheshire means that Liverpool will have a direct route into Manchester, what happens when they hit the buffer stops at Piccadilly? Through trains to Leeds and Hull will have to reverse!

What a ludicrous idea for high-speed lines. Before any station is built in Manchester (or Leeds), there should be consideration of streamlining the whole system as a joined-up through service without any impediments.

I understand that the proposed Leeds HS2 station would be a terminus south of the existing station. Another gaffe if ever there was one - like in Birmingham, it should also now (in the light of recent developments) be a through station to allow HS2 and HS3 to run from London and Liverpool to York and beyond without reversing.

In the rush to get building we are in danger of overlooking future problems and gross inconveniences. And if we don’t get it right now it will cost a lot in wastage and hassle for future generations. We must employ joinedup thinking before anything is built, and not leave silly, aggravating gaps and dead ends.

We must seize the chance to design out all problems before they occur. High-speed lines are no longer just London-centric.

Richard Outhwaite, Manchester

Jim Steer ( HS2M, RAIL 796) mentions a west coast route to Scotland OR an east coast route, but it’s obvious he wants the west coast route.

Why? The east coast route carries about eight cargo trains per day as against 32 on the west coast, and they get in the way of passenger traffic. So the high-speed passengers should go along the much flatter east coast route.

Whether the route to Scotland is built along the west coast or not, Middlesbrough and Newcastle must be reached. Not to do so would be unthinkable!

Leeds-Newcastle is 105 miles, and the North East exchanges 7,077,000 passengers per year with England south of the Humber-Mersey line, so a value of 67,400 passengers per built mile. That’s not counting the many passengers who go south from Edinburgh through Newcastle.

The west coast route of Glasgow, Carstairs (fork), Edinburgh and Glasgow is 251 miles and will get 6,226,000 passengers, so 24,804 passengers per built mile, about a third of the value of the Newcastle-Leeds route.

So the obvious route is Manchester, Leeds, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Glasgow (these last pair forming the muchdesired Edinburgh-Glasgow high-speed link). Michael Bell, Newcastle upon Tyne