No need to sneer at those whose homes will be bulldozed to make way for HS2 – Yorkshire Post letters

I REFER to your coverage of the High Speed Rail Industry Leaders report and comment piece by Jim Steer (The Yorkshire Post, July 11).

This is how HS2 can smash North-South divide and Power Up The North – Jim Steer

Incredibly in his opening sentence, Mr Steer manages to demonstrate his disdain of others, a trait typical of HS2 Ltd itself, by describing criticism or suggestions from HS2 sceptics as ‘the latest wheeze’.

HS2 will beneft North and regions more than London, says new report

This is a disgraceful slur on those of us who do not believe in HS2 as a case, or those who point out its serious shortcomings, its disregard for the environment or its rocketing costs.

HS2 has no ‘Plan B’ and can narrow North-South divide, Boris Johnson warned

Worse than that, it appears to be an arrogant sneer directed at those people currently losing their undervalued homes to HS2, and being expected to sign humiliating non-disclosure agreements.

I will be the PM who builds Northern Powerhouse Rail, vows Boris Johnson

I can assure Mr Steer I know a number of people who have suffered badly, both in health and financial terms from their dealings with HS2, and none of them find anything funny enough to initiate a jolly old wheeze.

Mr Steer appears to 
have been either accidentally negligent or deliberately disingenuous by failing to point out that this report is not compiled by observers independent of those with 
vested interests in the HS2 project.

I would have had a modicum of respect for Mr Steer, or the report he champions, if he had been open and explained to readers who High Speed Rail industry leaders really are.

From: ME Wright, Harrogate.

A MONTH month ago, we had Boris Johnson’s decades-late comment that the absence of a Metro in Leeds was “madness”. Liz Truss has now joined in (The Yorkshire Post, July 13).

As Tom Richmond reminded us, Liz was brought up and educated in Leeds. Why has it taken this long for her to realise the dire state of the city’s public transport? Are she and Mr Johnson reading from the same script? If so, why, and will it make the slightest difference?

From: Henry Cobden, Ilkley.

IF politicians had explained, at the outset, how HS2 would free up capacity for local services, it would not be facing so much opposition from residents and opportunists like Boris Johnson.

From: Thomas Reed, Harrogate.

GIVEN HS2 bosses say it is possible to build the Leeds to Sheffield link before other sections, why don’t they do it as part of the Northern Powerhouse?