YP Letters: Thank you, Pete Waterman, for making the case for HS2 railway

Pete Waterman is a railway enthusiast who has written in support of HS2.

MANY thanks for the very sensible article on HS2 by Pete Waterman, something that is well overdue in my opinion (The Yorkshire Post, February 2).

Pete Waterman: Why I’m backing HS2 to unleash true potential of Yorkshire and Northern Powerhouse

The major need for HS2 is current lack of capacity and not speed to London, but we are not going to build another Victorian railway are we? I am constantly annoyed at the level of anti-HS2 rhetoric and cannot remember anything like this when the far more disruptive and invasive M1 motorway was being built.

It takes something like four times more land to build a motorway compared to a two- track railway and yes, they did demolish lots of houses, woods and beautiful places in the process.

Motorways are also far more polluting than electric railways and they should be avoided whenever possible. I am the same age as Pete Waterman and HS2 is very unlikely to benefit me personally, but my only regret is that it takes so long for badly needed infrastructure projects to happen in this country, particularly regarding railways.

In the time that we have spent discussing HS2, China has designed, built and is already using over 1,000 miles of new electric high speed railway. By the time HS2 is in use, they will have connected all their major cities.