In an age of cuts, high speed railway link is nonsense

I REFER to the open letter regarding the proposed high speed rail link (Yorkshire Post, March 30).

Yes, it is clear that such a link would be beneficial, but to whom and at what cost? We are cutting funding to the police, fire service, the NHS, local government and a myriad of other very worthy organisations and those people want to spend all that money to save less than an hour on a journey from Sheffield and Birmingham to London.

One argument they give is that it would free other trains for goods transport. This is a total nonsense. Lorries took trade from the railways because they were not quick enough and to change that there would have to be many more billions spent on goods yards and handling facilities.

Don’t forget many rural lines no longer exist so trains simply cannot replace lorries. If business people are so keen to get there quicker, then they should fly from Robin Hood or Humberside Airports.

They could possibly make a case for flights from those airports to the inner city airport in London. The whole idea is a nonsense in this day and age of cuts.

From: TE Marston, Cambridge Street, Otley.

I SEE that the fast rail link campaign is in the news again, the idea being that people hurtling around the country at 225mph will solve all our problems.

If everyone in West Yorkshire was in such a hurry to get to London why has yet another airline packed the job up? In fact, a more sensible idea would be to charter a couple of planes which would do the job just as well.

On the same page as the above two articles, there is another piece about redundancies in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. I know which one I would rather have my taxes spent on.

From: Stephen English, Lawrence Street, York.

COME on, hands up, how many of the 90 signatories on the front page stand to directly benefit from the building of the high speed rail link?

My wife and I are both unemployed. I am occasionally offered temporary work. I am expected to turn up anywhere in the UK for 8am, in my own transport at my own expense. Would it be too much to ask these Government officials, business leaders, lawyers and accountants to suffer another 50 minutes to Leeds and Sheffield, in the knowledge that they are saving the nation billions for desperately needed funding in other areas?

Will 50 minutes for the privileged few make an impact on unemployment to the majority?

I don’t think so. I am surrounded by people of all trades and professions who are struggling with mortgages. We were promised jobs on the Olympics site for instance, which is flooded with East Europeans, as are many other projects in the London area. Will 50 minutes less give us our jobs back?

This new rail link, if it goes ahead, will, no doubt, treble or quadruple in cost. Publicly-funded projects always do. A few will make millions, the hard-pressed taxpayer will foot the bill as usual.

If you are lucky enough to have an income and travel to London regularly on expenses, then get up an hour earlier and stop moaning. These are hard times. We cannot afford it – face up to it!

From: John Wilson, Wilsons Solicitors, New Road Side, Horsforth, Leeds.

it seems illogical and a little demeaning for Yorkshiremen to be calling for better links with London. Surely Londoners should be calling for better links with Yorkshire? That makes far more sense.