HS2 ‘green tunnels’

FIRST of all thank you for an excellent magazine every month. In the

September edition on page 14 (HS2 News) you have a picture of concrete segments as part of a green tunnel.

My first impression of the picture was that we have created an impressive elegant cutting and what a pity that it is going to be filled in. Then I thought about the cost implications. Match the cost of what appears to be completely unnecessary work with the reality that the need for more rail use is widely accepted to give us any chance of saving the planet, and that we are already cutting back major developments because of the current financial constraints, and surely what should be getting cut back are items like these, not the connections to the North.

I know that the environmental lobby fought for this, but the environment needs more and better railways. I side with the environment, not the blinkered lobbyists. Yes there was a public enquiry and Acts of Parliament, but that has not stopped other aspects of HS2 being descoped, so why not descope these ‘green tunnels’?

Martin Petty Balerno, Edinburgh