I am puzzled and frustrated at the constant furore (mainly contra) concerning HS2, which rumbles constantly in the media over the magnificent, far-sighted and very necessary HS2 scheme. Certain facts are clear. Apparently, as with the Great Western elect

The country needs HS2

now being costed at over £100 million.

Indeed, many new schemes are coming out wildly over budget - and the larger the scheme, the worse the under-predictions have been.

In addition to this inefficiency, we have the wildly inaccurate comments from those along the way, which fall in the category of Nimbyism on a vast scale.

This has, for example, resulted in long tunnels being demanded and agreed to under the Chilterns by people who, it seems, care nothing for the overall economic health of the country

But where are those who will point out that a two-track railway takes up only a small fraction of land in comparison with the six-lane motorways that these same politicians and Nimbyists were quite agreeable to passing through their areas in the past?

Where are those who will point out repeatedly that what is needed for rail is not particularly the speed, but more capacity, more capacity, more capacity to supplement the present railway routes?

Where are those who will fight for equality in treatment for the two spurs of the route north of Birmingham? Abandon the Leeds spur, we hear! But do we hear that the Manchester spur should be abandoned? We must have both spurs.

Thank goodness the people of the North are raising Cain at the unfairness of the way they are being treated in comparison with the South East, where millions have been spent with no protests from those same Nimbys!

One wonders that the original railways were ever built at all, given that the ancestors of these same moaners were there to stop them. Yet we achieved a vast network of railways in the 18th century!

John Gilbert, Cradley