Why is the Government cutting part of HS2 instead of scrapping it all?
SIR – It has been 12 years since HS2 was announced in 2009.
At that time objectors said it was a ridiculous gimmick of a scheme, and a more effective and much cheaper alternative to building a de facto out-of-date system would be to upgrade the existing system.
We now have the Prime Minister agreeing with those critics. The HS2 spur to Leeds will be dropped and existing lines upgraded (report, November 18). Can’t Boris Johnson now just drop the whole thing and upgrade the rest of the system?
E J Judge
Leeds, West Yorkshire
SIR – The Government has again reneged on its promises to the North.
Had the Department for Transport planned HS2 properly, it would have insisted that the work started in the North and progressed towards the South on both sides of the Pennines, with modern links from Liverpool and Manchester to Bradford, Leeds, York and Newcastle. The Transpennine route has long needed upgrading.
When will London-based civil servants realise that there is a great expanse of land north of Birmingham with many residents who rely on public transport?
Duncan Taylor
Cambridge
SIR – When I was younger “levelling up” meant being honest, telling the truth and apologising when you were wrong.
Today it is just another Boris Johnson soundbite, which will come back to bite him at the next election. Tony Foulds
Wilmslow, Cheshire
SIR – It is ironic that people are now complaining about the cancellation of HS2 from Birmingham to Leeds.
As someone who lives near the horrendous workings of the southern part, I can only tell them that they should be celebrating, grateful that they are not going to have to put up with the further desecration of the countryside for an outdated concept.
I thought it was accepted that the North needs better connectivity locally, which is what it will now get. The Government should never have persisted with the project. Remember what it has already achieved at the Chesham and Amersham by-election. Ruth Leach
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire
SIR – Keith Punshon (Letters, November 19) argues that the curtailment of HS2 in the North is a betrayal of Red Wall voters.
Some might argue that the preservation of HS2 in the South is a betrayal of Blue Wall voters.
Nick Hazelton
Wimborne, Dorset
SIR – How is it that, in Europe, highspeed rail connections have been constructed across the Continent, yet we are still struggling to build one line?
Alan Shaw
Halifax, West Yorkshire