Cost of HS2

sir – The fundamental question over HS2 (report, January 19) is this: if the original cost estimate had been £108 billion, would the project have been approved? And the answer is no, because the calculated benefits would not have justified such a cost.

But, as with so many government enterprises, an unrealistically low cost estimate is used initially. Thereafter, no one has the courage to cancel the project because, as the costs ramp up, this would be seen as wasting the money that has already been spent.

It’s all a con – and we, as taxpayers, are paying the price. Terry Lloyd

Derby

sir – Scrapping the Birmingham-to-leeds leg of HS2, which the Government is reportedly considering, would be seen as breaking the promise to help the North – unless something else is put in its place.

There are three main reasons for the astronomical cost of HS2: the acquisition of private land, the excavation and embankment work required for a level course, and the additional technology needed for safe high-speed travel. These costs can be vastly reduced by running a monorail system above our motorways (which already belong to us). Producing a level course would simply require stanchions of different heights. Straighter routes could be achieved by deviating away from curves to relatively cheap farmland.

Running the trains at more moderate speeds than those proposed for HS2 would not shorten showcase travel times, but an adequate frequency of such trains, along many more routes than currently envisaged, would free up existing railway lines for goods traffic and local stations, leading to an overall speeding up of the entire system. Up north they’d be delighted.

Robert Jenkins Cardiff