HS2

GIVEN THAT HS2 is Britain’s largest – and most expensive – infrastructure project, the challenges were always going to be formidable and its tests are three-fold.

If Theresa May and Chris Grayling needed any further evidence of the political cost of the continuing failure to deal with the North’s creaking transport infrastructure, they could not have asked for a better illustration than that of Jeremy Corbyn spending the day on the region’s railways to highlight passengers’s continuing unhappiness at slow-moving and unreliable services.

From: Nigel Davies, London.

LIKE many another passenger on Yorkshire’s woeful rail network, I tend to approach every journey with the same sense of trepidation as an appointment with the dentist for root-canal treatment.

While on initial inspection, it would be churlish not to welcome the confirmation of £780m of funding to pay for much-needed improvements to rail services in Yorkshire, the announcement by Prime Minister Theresa May timed, to coincide with her Cabinet’s visit to the North-East, demands further scrutiny.

From: CB Booth, Birkin, Knottingley.

From: Arthur Quarmby, Mill Moor Road, Meltham.

Britain needs to find an extra 50,000 lorry drivers. Mark Adams, the MD of Transdek, is helping the big players to manage their fleet more efficiently. He met Deputy Business Editor Greg Wright.

THE tricky questions keep mounting for Chris Grayling who is enduring another torrid week as Transport Secretary when, frankly, he should have resigned – or been sacked – long ago.

From: Helen Bladen, Ludwell Hill, Barnburgh, Doncaster.

From: David Reed, Houses Hill, Huddersfield.

From: Dr Alex Strickland, Liverpool.

From: Dr David Hill, CEO, World Innovation Foundation, Huddersfield.

From: John Turley, Dronfield Woodhouse.

FOLLOWING the financial collapse of overstretched construction giant Carillion after the HS2 and public sector contractor announced half-year losses of £1.15bn, the Government remains steadfast in its commitment to high-speed rail.

From: Geoff Marsden, Buxton Avenue, Heanor.

Consultation on the route of HS2 through South Yorkshire will not be reopened despite the Government admitting a comparison of housing demolition figures used to help justify altering the line’s direction in 2016 were wrong by at least 40 per cent.