No HS2 link to Leeds

THE M.E.N. (June 15) discusses ventilation shafts for ‘The £56bn HS2 route linking London, Birmingham, the East Midlands, Leeds and Manchester.’ That’s clever wording; it suggests that there will be a high-speed route between Leeds and Manchester. HS2 is not planning that.

As currently planned, the only way you could travel on high-speed railway between Manchester and Leeds it to go Manchester – Birmingham and then change to go Birmingham –Leeds!

HS2 plans its Manchester station to make it as difficult as possible to create a link to Leeds. HS2 plans its Leeds station to make it impossible to create a link to Manchester.

But the government says it wants HS2 to build a route, ‘HS3,’ linking Liverpool to Manchester, Leeds and Hull. Is this a case of the government having two faces? Sadly likely!

This contradiction is resolved in http://www.thornshapedroute. com/

In this plan the route comes north from Stoke and passes close to the west end of Manchester airport. Some tunnelling and open-air building will be necessary to link the Holyhead-Chester-Mobberley route to Manchester Airport-Manchester Piccadilly.

The route forks near Lymm, westward to Liverpool, eastward through Eccles to Manchester Victoria.

This gives access to Liverpool one way and to Leeds the other ways. The route goes on through Chadderton parallel to the M62 and onto a viaduct over Newhey. That will be a spectacular viaduct, and a candidate for awards.

The maximum possible gradient will be 1:83, well within what modern high-speed trains can climb, it will be even less if a short tunnel is built clipping the crest of the ridge.

The M62 was surveyed and built in 10 years, and so could this route be. Michael Bell, Newcastle