Dubious value HS2 line will not create manufacturing jobs

From: D Wood, Thorntree Lane, Goole.

having read much about the proposed HS2 rail route, and seen the inept Transport Secretary Justine Greening pathetically trying to justify the unjustifiable on BBC2’s Question Time, I would like to make a few observations about this project.

Firstly, the price for the completed project is quoted as £32bn but by the time this is completed this price will have exceeded £100bn as the people who price these contracts for the Government usually don’t have a clue as to what they are doing.

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Secondly, the reasons for building this railway are to say the least dubious. This new line will not ease congestion on any of the existing lines simply because it does not serve the same stations.

As for the jobs, the only jobs that will be created will be for constructing this new line, jobs that will disappear upon completion of the work. Any real jobs in manufacturing (the type of jobs we need) can be provided without the new line.

From: P J Gray, Shelley Grove, Sprotborough, Doncaster.

i FULLY concur with the sentiments expressed by your correspondent Pat Mellor (Yorkshire Post, January 14) in which they question the validity of the HS2 project.

To embark on such a costly programme as this at a time when the nation’s finances are in such a parlous state smacks of a high profile, vanity undertaking, albeit artificially conceived. A case of diverting the electorate’s attention from an otherwise lacklustre performance, perhaps?

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As your correspondent points out, much could be done instead by turning the clock back to some extent and making good the huge gaps in the rail network caused by the swingeing Beeching cuts of the 1960s. Many places robbed of a rail connection have hugely expanded since those distant days and are crying out for an environmentally friendly rail link.

One has only to look at the figures of recently reopened stations and lines to see that most perform much better than the most optimistic predictions. People do like train travel. In Yorkshire alone, locations such as Ripon and Market Weighton present a good case for a new rail link, and restrictions on the Sheffield-Manchester Hope Valley line suggest the time has come for a new, detailed look at a revived Woodhead trans-Pennine route.

From: Roger M Dobson, Ash Street, Cross Hills, Keighley.

what good news it was that we are to be afforded high speed rail travel in the future at the enormous cost of £32bn.

Surely this amount of money could be far better spent on a) the Health Service; b) the emergency services or c) the justice system? Spent on these the money could reverse at least some of the stupid cuts introduced by the Government. In this way far more people in this country would benefit from this money.

From: Matthew Shaw, West End Road, Golcar, Huddersfield.

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OF course, what our region really needs is a new Yorkshire to Lancashire motorway.

The A628 Woodhead and A57 Snake Passes are hardly suitable roads to link two major conurbations, which frequently become closed by high winds or modest falls of snow.

One must also question the wisdom of grandiose HS2 scheme, a dizzyingly expensive way to facilitate travel between favoured cities at breakneck speeds.

Bringing back into use abandoned track beds would offer ordinary people a viable alternative to using their cars.

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So, instead of trying to cut North to South journey times with 230mph trains, how about being able to travel the 43 miles between Sheffield and Manchester in 30 minutes via the Woodhead Tunnel?

Sadly, it seems central government are more interested in the over-ambitious.