HS2 mugs us all for idea of infinite growth on finite planet

I WRITE in response to your article “We’ve been mugged, say Yorkshire villagers over HS2 rail route” (Yorkshire Post, February 5). The residents of Church Fenton are not alone in rejecting the idea of super high speed rail.

The Greens reject the idea on several grounds. First, that the enormous sums of money involved could be spent on much more important things, such as health, education, care for those in need, modernisation and energy efficiency of buildings for homes and heritage (tourism is a big earner), regulatory bodies (to ensure we are not eating horsemeat when we don’t intend to, or being killed by hospital infections), not to mention a better, more integrated local transport network.

Second, we refute the idea that HS2 will help with that worn-out concept of “growth”. “Growth” in terms of competition with other countries has had its day and we now have to build sustainable communities which need the opposite of people haring from place to place at ludicrous speed.

Increasingly there are already viable alternatives to travel that still allow worldwide face to face “meetings” such as web conferences, Skype etc which save carbon, time and money. Why are we so obsessed with cutting minutes off journeys? It’s relaxing travelling by train – you can sleep, write, read, chat, do business – or even think.

Third, in terms of carbon emissions, high speed rail is about as bad as air travel, so it doesn’t help with carbon reduction. Rejection of HS2 is not nimbyism. HS2 is anachronistic, unnecessary, expensive and environmentally damaging.

The residents of Church Fenton are right. They have been mugged – just as we have all been mugged by the false concept of infinite growth on a finite planet.

From: G Wright, Fieldside Court, Tadcaster.

I WONDER if the overwhelming case for the HS2, described by Mr Carter (Yorkshire Post, February 11), is the same as that pushed through my letterbox, seemingly produced by the HS2 management, with a foreword by my MP.

To describe the case as overwhelming would need a suspension of elementary critical faculties. Apart from the well known phenomenon that reports with projected numbers usually have an inverse relationship between accuracy and the number of noughts at the end of figures, some of the evidence is bordering on the dishonest.

To give two examples, the relative times from Leeds/York to Sheffield Midland are compared, when the new service is not even scheduled to stop at Sheffield Midland. In addition, times are compared between present journeys and those for 20 years hence, without the present having been revised to take account of traction and rolling stock improvement on existing well-served lines in the intervening years.

For those towns like Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield and Harrogate, whose travellers will need to change stations in Leeds to access the new service, the time saving is likely to be minimal. For Doncaster and Wakefield, the HS2 blurb seems to imply a diminished service.

If Yorkshire and the North East are to participate fully in a global economy, one would have thought a more pressing need would be an airport this side of the Pennines capable of long-haul flights. Flights to London Heathrow from Yeadon – surely one of the worst located airports in the UK – are a third rate alternative.

HS2 beyond Birmingham is another potential white elephant to add to Concorde, the NHS computer, fast-breeder reactors and other technical projects with dire economic consequences.

Fine for those who inhabit the branch of economics known as 
the “taxpayers’ money grows on trees theory”, but for the average Joe as far out of reach as was Concorde.

From: RB Sumner, Costa Way, Pickering.

I KEEP reading about all the concern regarding the new high-speed rail line. I am not the one to complain having only been on two trains in the last 50 years but the people who do use them complain about how much it costs.

Has anyone stopped to think what a ticket will cost? They will probably need a mortgage to buy one.