Providing a platform for HS2 debate

FROM a Harrogate business perspective, we are looking forward to the introduction of the new bi-modal IEP trains on the existing East Coast Main line due in 2019.

These should provide more direct services between Harrogate and London within this decade. However the planned arrival of HS2 in Yorkshire in 2032 is so far into the future as to be almost irrelevant for our current members.

What we do need is the urgent electrification and upgrading of services on the existing Harrogate Line between Leeds, Harrogate, Knaresborough and York. Our businesses and our many visitors will then be able to connect with the ECML trains at Leeds and York without the present problems of poor connectivity and over-crowded trains.

Then when HS2 does eventually reach Leeds and York, passengers will be able to get to or from Harrogate in a reasonable time. Without such frequent local services, the claimed time-saving on HS2 will be lost in trying to reach the few stations along the new line. Creating a new Parkway Station on the HS2 line south-east of Leeds is the only other way we can see it being worthwhile for Harrogate.

From: Geoff Pawson, Bolton Abbey, Skipton.

IT’s good to see that the Yorkshire Post is providing a balanced, impartial platform for the HS2 debate. We have comments from six businessmen, five are based in Leeds and surprise, surprise are in favour, one is based in Hull and is against.

Furthermore, unable to tempt us with time saving, unable to convince us with a business case, the Transport Secretary is now resorting to threats, claiming 14 years of disruption on the existing main lines while they are upgraded to meet demand.

If the rest of Britain’s infrastructure was in first class order then this vanity project might possibly be justifiable, but it isn’t. The roads are shot, the Health Service is understaffed and we are risking our future energy security on foreign States/companies of variable stability.

Let’s stop this madness now and instead of boosting jobs in London in four years time when construction is due to start, get our own economy growing now with the upgrading of the local networks, lengthening platforms, ordering more carriages and making train travel in the North a pleasure rather than a chore.

From: Canon Michael Storey, Healey Wood Road, Brighouse.

WITHOUT knowing fully the pros and cons of the proposed HS2 line, my intuition is against it. I am with those who feel that using that large amount of money on improving the present railway structure would be of more benefit to more people across the UK.

The “trees on the line” as a result of the recent storms should not be a surprise to anyone. Forty years ago there were no trees so near the lines; British Rail with all its faults, made a better job of stopping tree growth than Network Rail manages these days. On so many journeys nowadays the “long view” from the carriage is blocked by trees!

Some of the proposed HS2 money could be well spent in returning the track sides to their 1950s state!

From: Clive A Brook, Director, Johnson Brook, Regent House, Leeds.

AS a director of a new planning and development consultancy, with a pedigree spanning the last 30 years in Leeds, I would like to express our support and enthusiasm for this project.

In our view there can be little doubt that HS2 has all of the qualities of a transformational project there being numerous examples of the wide economic and regeneration benefits realised in other western European countries.

While in one respect the geography of the UK is more constraining than the broader expanses of France and Germany in another, the relatively limited east-west expanse has the potential to spread the economic benefits to more urban areas than has been the case with individual lines in France. The spread of these benefits is dependent on a number of factors including, as advocated by many on either side of this debate, improvements to our sub regional and regional transport infrastructure. It is not a case of involvement in a national investment to the detriment of more localised transport investment.

We must, as a region, be strong advocates for both. France and Germany benefit from a system of greater integration of planning and investment in transport infrastructure through close linkages between national and city-region planning. These linkages are currently too weak and this is in large part a product of successive re-organisations of regional and local government.

The major negative factor is the extended delivery programme to a 2032/33 arrival in Leeds. We are pleased to see that there is now some Government commitment to examine reductions in this time scale and we must lobby strongly to achieve this. A shorter programme would bring forward benefits and increase support for the project.

We look forward to a continuing and objective debate on the project and its delivery.

From: Paul Wilman, Batley, West Yorkshire.

AS a director of my own company for 30 years, I just cannot see where the financial sense is to spend such a large amount of money on what really is a vanity project, with no guaranteed returns.

We are also going to borrow the money to fund it! We will never know the ultimate price it will cost, financially or environmentally. They are predicting £50bn already. We all know it will be well in excess of this. I trust you will reconsider your support.

From: Bob Watson, Baildon, Shipley.

WHILE I have great respect for Andrew Mason of Newmason Properties, I couldn’t disagree more with his negative views about HS2 (Yorkshire Post, October 28).

His emotive remarks, perhaps coloured by being a Church Fenton parish councillor, must be taken with a huge pinch of salt.

This HS2 project is absolutely vital so that our rail network does not grind to a halt as capacity problems strangle any possibility of future growth. We will badly let down future generations if we do not allow it to go ahead.