Britain can improve its railways without throwing more money at HS2

SIR – HS2, discussed by Dr Richard Wellings (Comment, July 29), will overrun its budget, as all government projects do. Politicians have no sense of urgency and don’t appear to realise that, once something has been finalised, no modifications should be allowed, otherwise the programme cannot be delivered on time.

The clear alternative is to upgrade the former Great Western line to Birmingham via Princes Risborough, as extensive sections are already quadruple-track. The remaining sections could be quadrupled, so high-speed trains and local trains could run independently of each other.

More capacity could be provided by reinstating the Great Central Railway, which is suitable for high-speed trains and served Rugby, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester – thus fulfilling the objectives of Phase One and some of Phase Two of HS2.

Mike Simmons Chepstow, Monmouthshire

SIR – I agree with Dr Wellings: HS2 is unwanted and extremely expensive.

It is also worth remembering that HS2 is part of the EU’s plans for fast communications between its cities (TENs), which, I suspect, is why the Government is pumping huge amounts of money into the project.

Philip Griffiths Birkenhead

SIR – Dr Wellings fails to grasp that the reason for building HS2 is and has always been capacity, which does not just benefit long-distance travellers.

He claims that the Euston line is not full, on the basis that long-distance trains normally have some free seats. However, its commuter trains have some of the worst crowding in Britain, while serving areas of massive house-building at Leighton Buzzard, Milton Keynes and Northampton. Interurban flows, such as Birmingham Airport to Milton Keynes, are badly served as there is no scope to run more trains on the existing tracks among long-distance through trains.

So there is a need for another pair of

tracks in and out of London, and the benefits of the new capacity are greatest if the tracks are built as a high-speed line, leaving the existing line free to serve commuters, interurban flows and freight.

Capacity constraints arise at stations at least as much as between stations, which makes nonsense of Mr Wellings’s suggested descoping of HS2. The Old Oak Common site is not big enough for a terminus on the scale of HS2’s at Euston. Abandoning routes into Birmingham and Manchester would frustrate opportunities to improve other services in those areas, as their main stations are full to – and, in the case of New Street, beyond – their planned capacity.

Mr Wellings also takes a sideswipe at Doncaster. Doncaster came to be a major conurbation, building wooden railway carriages and steam engines. Without those, of course it has become poorer, but it would be poorer still without its fast rail service to London.

William Barter Towcester, Northamptonshire