The HS2 project has been a catalogue of delays and broken promises
SIR – I keep reading that HS2 is “shovel ready”.
Living close to the proposed line and watching the incompetence of the contractors to deliver the enabling works, I can safely say this phrase is about as reliable as the claim that HS2 would be “on time and on budget”. Natasha Douglas
Banbury, Oxfordshire
SIR – Liam Halligan (Business, January 12) makes such a convincing argument for cancelling HS2 that one can only conclude that the final decision is being delayed by politics (as ever).
Now Brexit is about to happen there is no excuse for delay: Britain’s rail infrastructure is urgently in need of the kind of investment that HS2 has been guzzling up on its own. The Government needs to support projects that will benefit the many not the few. David Rammell
Everton, Hampshire
SIR – Cancelling HS2 would signal that Britain really is leaving the EU. As
Christopher Booker explained in a column on January 14 2012, “HS2 is a political project, inspired by [Jacques] Delors’ dream of an integrated Europe.” He asked: “Why does the driving force behind this insane project have to be a state secret? Not the least price we pay for being part of the ‘European project’ is how it makes those who rule over us so routinely deceitful.”
With Brexit, our politicians can now be honest about HS2, which “makes no practical sense at all” – and scrap it. Francis Vorhies
Oxford
SIR – Supporters of HS2 quote speeds of 250 mph, but this is misleading.
Several years ago I took the highspeed train from Shanghai centre to Shanghai airport. Its speed was displayed in every carriage. It spent 18 miles accelerating to maximum speed, held it for 10 seconds – then spent 18 miles decelerating. Keith Rothwell
Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
SIR – We hear much about the cost of HS2 but little about the effect it is having on businesses on the route.
I was recently called to a farm to repair a large slurry store. Slurry cannot be spread in many areas until plants are ready to use the nutrients in the spring – so it has to be stored. After examining the store, I recommended that it be replaced. However, the farm’s grazing land is earmarked to be taken by HS2, which would make the store redundant.
Providing a replacement, the main activity of my rural enterprise, would be totally uneconomic until this uncertain situation is resolved. I had to cobble together a repair, emphasising that it was only temporary; use next year could result in a pollution incident. I am certain that this situation is not unique to that particular farm. HS2 should be cancelled immediately to let sound businesses continue to thrive in an environmentally sustainable way. Mick Moor
Matlock, Derbyshire