Where is the energy that Brunel exemplified?

SIR – In the projected timescale for constructing HS2 (nearly 20 years) Victorian engineers had pretty well the entire rail network up and running.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, as well as building the Great Western Railway, constructed bridges, ships, docks and tunnels. He was only in his fifties when he died. Brunel is only one of a number of superb British engineers whose achievements still adorn our country.

What has happened to our get up and go since?

Nicholas Wightwick

Rossett, Denbighshire

Si monumentum requiris: Brunel’s statue at Paddington by John Doubleday (1982)