HS2 not needed in North, focus on local rail links – Yorkshire Post Letters

IN your Editorial, “New Case for High Speed Rail” (The Yorkshire Post, July 16), you concluded that the region needs to accelerate high speed rail, including HS2, to maximise the benefits.

Your comments followed publication of the interim report of the National Infrastructure Commission, advisers to the Government. The report sets out the extent to which investment in Northern transport has been neglected over many years. It also warns of consistent overspends on major rail schemes.

Meanwhile public awareness continues to grow about two issues. The first is the lack of spending on the more localised transport schemes, which benefit the majority of people – in contrast to the big, prestige schemes, more suitable for long distance commuters. The second is the need for actions to match words on tackling climate change. Clearly the projected costs of HS2 have increased substantially, and even if it meets its current schedule, it will not be completed until 2040.

Yet rail upgrades in the North, such as those on the TransPennine and Hope Valley routes, could deliver real benefits sooner and have been consistently delayed.

Neither must rail investment priorities for the North duck the central issue of decarbonisation. The rail industry has estimated that over 4,000 route kilometres will need to be electrified by 2030 to achieve the Government’s net zero carbon target date of 2050.

Rail freight needs enhanced capacity and a clear decarbonisation plan. This would ensure more goods can switch from road to rail.

Both South and West Yorkshire joint authorities have committed to earlier targets because the evidence of the urgency of tackling climate change is constantly emerging.

Our priorities should be on electrifying existing lines and improving local train services. These would provide vitally needed jobs quickly. We can do without HS2.

From: Keith Alford, Canterbury Crescent, Fulwood, Sheffield.

IN his nostalgia article (The Yorkshire Post, July 21), Peter Tuffrey says that two passenger excursions travelled over the old South Yorkshire Joint Railway in 1952 and 1953.

At least one more excursion used the line in 1963 when Mexborough Grammar School chartered a train to carry pupils to support their team competing in the annual inter grammar school sports that were hosted that year by Maltby Grammar School.

Of course, in those days the railways were under one integrated ownership, such a feat today under the fragmented and bureaucratic management structure would be almost impossible, even assuming 1,000 teenagers could be organised to walk over a mile at each end of the journey.

The meaning of being local

From: JKM Krawiec, Station Road, North Thoresby.

THE revived debate on local government reorganisation should start by looking at what the two words “local” and “government” mean (Keane Duncan, The Yorkshire Post, July 20). To be local one must have an identity with an area (I don’t think people in Selby think Richmond or Scarborough to be local to them). Equally it has to be accepted that to be able to effectively govern there needs to be a sufficient critical mass and resource.

However, if this is the criteria, then why not just accept we should have local administration (as to some degree in the NHS) and then have regional government (in this case the whole of Yorkshire)?

Actually what is really needed is a Royal Commission on the provision of public services and how they are paid for.

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

WE had a system of government that worked for years and years.

Sadly the system became outdated and had to be brought into the modern era. Successive governments have tried to improve it by combining the smaller authorities into larger ones. This had the effect of bringing all the individual systems into one huge system.

It has had the effect of depriving all those small towns and villages of services like the police, hospitals and the like so that they could be concentrated in the larger conurbations. In my opinion, big is not always beautiful – or more efficient.

Celebrate our wildlife gains

From: Richard Bailey, Co-ordinator, Peak District Moorland Group

MOORLAND gamekeepers have recently spotted a bearded vulture on the Peak District – just the second time one has been seen in the UK. This is great news and praise must be given to the land managers who look after the upland habitat.

All grouse moor estates are proud collaborators in the Peak District Bird of Prey Initiative, which has resulted in a tremendously successful breeding season for key raptors in the Peak District; Goshawk, Peregrine Falcon and Merlin

We were extremely disappointed to read the insinuations put forward in recent articles with contributions by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust and Sheffield and Rotherham Wildlife Trust. Surely, we could expect conservation organisations to be focused on celebrating our wildlife gains?

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor