Reconsider the decision on GBR HQ

I note that the search for a location for the new Great British Railways headquarters has now been whittled down to six (RAIL 961, 962).

Unsurprisingly, all are Midlands/Northern railway towns and cities - in order to comply with the Government’s dogma to ‘level up the UK’.

In his address to Rail Live, Network Rail Chairman Sir Peter Hendy CBE suggested that it is not unreasonable for Government to want to claw back some of the £16 billion invested to prop up the railway industry during the pandemic.

As a first step, I would urge the Secretary of State for Transport to save wasteful investment and be brave enough to kick the dogmatic decision about moving away from Milton Keynes into the proverbial ‘long grass’.

Francis Messenger, North Weald