Drop HS2 vanity project and improve travel around the North instead - Yorkshire Post letters

What is notable about much of the discussion over public transport developments in the North that come out of the political establishment in London, is just how much it sees our future as one defined by faster links to the capital.

The existing rail links, whilst not perfect, are good enough for most of us.

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Three franchises offer fast and comfortable routes – shaving a few minutes off journey times will hardly be transformative.

What is really needed are initiatives that directly improve how people are able to travel around the north, not just to and from the south.

Three examples stand out – each would make major improvements in three of the largest Yorkshire cities but all are unlikely to gain support from London.

The first, by far the cheapest, construct a rail station for the KCOM stadium in Hull. It is utterly ridiculous that this major venue, standing right next to two existing rail lines, can not be accessed by train.

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Secondly, connect the two rail stations in Bradford by some form of fixed link, ideally rail, to allow through services across this part of West Yorkshire.

It has always been a glaring gap in the network that these two hubs are not connected – when only half a mile apart.

The third is the most difficult and expensive, yet also the most important.

Car-choked Leeds must have a tram network. These really do transform urban areas, as Manchester’s and to a degree, Sheffield’s show.

These, and so many more, should have taken precedences over the monstrous vanity project of HS2/3, which will destroy far more than it creates, whilst offering nothing of consequence to how we move around the north.