SIR – You report (August 6) on Sir Keir Starmer’s support for HS2.
Our politicians appear to live in a fantasy world where they still think this project is giving us “value for money” – even though the infrastructure watchdog has warned that it is out of control (report, July 30), with projected costs exceeding £100 billion. What does the country have to show for this? A railway line that has destroyed hundreds of hectares of natural woodland, has cost over two and a half times the original budget, and will not connect our two major cities for more than 20 years.
It is a shambles. Stop it now.
Terry Lloyd
Derby
SIR – You report that the Infrastructure and Projects authority has declared HS2 unachievable. As construction of the core route from London to the West Midlands is well advanced, this verdict can only reflect the uncertainty over Euston station.
The rationale for new rail infrastructure always was, and remains, to add long-distance capacity so the existing West Coast Main Line can be repurposed for freight and local services, with speed primarily a bonus.
The HS2 Phase 1 hybrid Bill was based perfectly sensibly on a two-stage construction process for Euston that would deliver all this, initially providing six platforms for services to Birmingham and the North West, followed by five more as and when trains were to be added with the extensions towards Scotland, Yorkshire and the North East. Largely to maximise scope for property development, this scheme was replaced with a single-stage build with fewer and narrower platforms for HS2 services, and the problems have mounted up ever since.
It is time the Government reverted to its original plan: given that decisions on HS2’s northern extensions have been postponed, the two-stage build would only incur the minimum costs of building on the already cleared site at Euston and allow the benefits of the scheme to be unlocked.
William Barter
Towcester, Northamptonshire
SIR – An open return train ticket to London from Plymouth costs as much as £322, and the 250-mile journey takes more than three hours.
The same open return journey from Edinburgh costs £150, and it takes four and a half hours to cover the 400-mile distance. The train from the West Country is, in short, twice the price and runs at a slower speed.
May I suggest that the argument in favour of HS2 – that the North-South divide needs to be tackled – is reconsidered, and some attention paid to us in the South West?
Christopher Wood
Plymouth, Devon
SIR – You report (August 10) that two HS2 diggers will receive a ceremonial burial at Old Oak Common. Why just two diggers? Surely it’s high time the whole project was buried.
Duncan Rayner
Sunningdale, Berkshire
