HS2M READERS’ LETTERS

William Barter’s critical article on HSUK ( RAIL 803) is not helpful towards making the case for high-speed rail.

Rather than asking the detailed questions he has posed, he should be looking at the bigger picture.

For example, while HS2 will result in many important city-to-city pairs receiving a worse rail service after HS2 is launched, HSUK enables all cities to benefit.

As an experienced railway operator, he should be fully aware of the benefits of a well-connected rail network that HSUK will achieve. HSUK serves city centres, so these cities will benefit from job creation on a far larger scale than if served by HS2’s parkways.

HSUK is not the perfect solution, and I agree with William Barter that it lacks in serving West Coast places. It needs a HSWC to complement it, just as HS2 needs HS3 for East-West connectivity.

But even on its own, without the highly necessary West Coast additions, HSUK offers a far better integrated railway than both HS2 and HS3 could achieve. In my humble opinion, HSUK meets my needs as a rail traveller far, far better than HS2. HSUK is a much better product, and one that I would prefer to use.

Graham Nalty, Derby

In HS2 Matters ( RAIL 804), the National Audit Office proposes a rather outdated idea to reduce building costs of HS2. Government bodies clearly have no concept that if you build a modern railway that hopefully will connect to HS1, you should adopt the same loading gauge standards.

When HS1 was constructed, then-Transport Minister John Prescott decided that the line needed constructing to carry European trains.

But having read the current proposals, adopting the more restrictive British loading gauge is a step back in time. Given that the proposed trains will not be able to tilt, clearly they are unsuitable to run on the West Coast Main Line.

As for using Sheffield station rather than building a dedicated station, this is clearly ill-thought-out, given there are restrictive tunnels at the southern end of the station.

Finally, as most of our modern trains have very limited luggage space, more thought needs to be given to the overall design of a 21st century railway.

Geoff Sims, Glossop