As rail fares rise at high speed, who can afford to travel?

From: Geoffrey Thorpe, Lister Avenue, East Bowling, Bradford.

the HS2 debate will carry on 
for a long time with many voices for, and many against.

The voices for keep saying 
that the rail line will fetch prosperity to the North but fail to explain how.

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The voices against say it will be a white elephant, and that the cost of anything that the Government has anything to do with organising always costs far more than the original price detailed.

If these prices keep rising at the current rate, who will be able to travel by rail?

If the proposed HS2 goes ahead, no doubt you will have to pay a premium for saving a few minutes of travel time.

The present trains are overcrowded but the fares 
keep rising above inflation, so if the HS2 is built and takes 20 per cent of present users, fares will have to rise to cover the lost revenues.

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Rail travel will only be available to travellers on expenses, MPs and the like, as nobody will be able to travel at short notice.

The North needs manufacturing factories for prosperity, not some fancy rail line that will devastate this country.

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

I HAVE read so many articles and letters in the Yorkshire Post about how the South is better off than the North, yet when HS2 promises to unite the two halves of the country there seems to be no appreciation of the benefits it will bring to us here in Yorkshire. Do we deserve our reputation as grumpy moaners?

From: Andrew Mason, Common Lane, Church Fenton, Tadcaster.

I READ your article from Leeds councillor Richard Lewis the other day with growing disbelief (Yorkshire Post, November 5).

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How can an executive member be so ill-informed? We already have high speed. HS2 is super-high speed. Our cities are already better connected than any in Europe.

We can increase capacity on existing routes by lengthening trains reducing bottlenecks, changing signalling…surely he must know this.

Does he think commuters are going to use these train to get to work? Ordinary taxpayers, paying for this, won’t be able to afford it.

Not good enough.

Sadly my 16- year old son is better informed.

From: Pauline Balmforth, Central Park, Halifax.

WITH reference to the excellent letter from David Reed of Huddersfield (Yorkshire Post, November 9) concerning the misunderstandings about high speed rail, it really put things into perspective for me. We have to move forward or fall behind the times and let down our Victorian ancestors who were world leaders.

From: Hugh Rogers, Messingham Road, Ashby

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THE endless, near obsessive, debate about HS2 is tedious, boring and pointless. There is cross party support for the project and it will be built.

The way rail fares are going, I am never likely to be able to afford to travel on it anyway.

Like Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind frankly, my dears I couldn’t give a damn.

From: Mrs Rosemary W Bell, Red Lane, Masham, Ripon.

I WRITE to express my deep objection to the HS2 rail proposal in response to your article (Yorkshire Post, October 28). My main concern is related to the huge amount of land that will be lost.

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It is obvious to anyone that huge areas of agricultural land will be taken as it has been for the A1(M) upgrade.

Many farms and horticultural enterprises will be put out of business. We cannot make any more land!

As an island nation, we must produce more of our own food not less. We should not be importing food which we can grow ourselves. If this country keeps building as it is, how long will it be before there is no countryside left – what sort of responsible action is that?

Homes and amenities will also be lost and I believe this is yet another Government exercise created just to give people employment yet it will produce nothing. The countryside must be preserved for food production which everyone needs. We don’t all need to go ever faster down to London. Does anyone really believe people from London will come up here?

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Please pass these comments to anyone who will take notice. I have sent a copy to my MP Julian Smith.

From: Derek Curson, Elland.

FOR the first time since moving to Yorkshire, I find myself in full accord with most of your letter-writers over HS2 (Yorkshire Post, November 5).

Your accompanying columnists continue to brow-beat us with the usual political fairy-tales regarding the untold benefits to be gained by this calamitous proposal. One even cites the likes of Stevenson’s and Brunel’s achievements – disregarding the most important point that these engineers had to raise their own funds to pay for their ground-breaking ideas.

It was the shareholders who bore the brunt of any failures or hiccups in their day.

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Time and time again a fresh-faced proponent of some outlandish scheme pops up seeking public money to source his ideas. Every intake of MPs and councillors has its share of self-seeking fast-talking boyos or misses. Thank goodness the surgeons, doctors and nurses in Calderdale have not succumbed and do a marvellous job.