Reasons why we don’t need to build HS2

From: Graham Lund, Dalrymple Street, Girvan.

I HOPE we never see any more “progress” on HS2. It has shown itself to be an embarrassment of epic proportions before a sod has been cut. It is not needed.

There is heavy use of Londonbound train services in the morning peak and away from the metropolis in the afternoons and evenings. Investment in the Northern Powerhouse would stimulate much of northern England including those still with a dense network of local lines in former mining, woollen and cotton districts. There is ample railway capacity between Liverpool and Manchester, thence forward to Leeds, York and beyond. Electrifying the gap between Manchester and York is made less difficult by having two major railway routes between Piccadilly and Leeds.

The Diggle route has been ignored for donkeys’ years. The Calder Valley route is now connected to both Manchester Piccadilly and Victoria so both of these should be electrified giving continuous work to contractors whilst maintaining effective working capacity. Don’t forget to bring Bradford on board. Now there is a marketing slogan.

We need to rebalance the transport flows over much of the UK to reduce car use largely by modal change, including walking.

There are surely enough overall seats between London and Manchester/Liverpool early in the day and in the opposite direction later on. The solution is largely above. Reopen the Woodhead route and run fast trains from Manchester Piccadilly to St Pancras. Maybe then we can pause for breath before further improving our railways.

From: Nigel Davies, London.

YOUR Business Editor Mark Casci is absolutely correct that Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2 is not a binary choice, both are a necessity for the North and the Midlands, especially as a once in a generation long-term opportunity (The Yorkshire Post, February 14).

The Channel 4 Dispatches programme was an unbalanced hatchet job which Mr Casci correctly identifies as being a divide and conquer strategy.