Dubious value HS2 line will not create manufacturing jobs

having read much about the proposed HS2 rail route, and seen the inept Transport Secretary Justine Greening pathetically trying to justify the unjustifiable on BBC2’s Question Time, I would like to make a few observations about this project.

Firstly, the price for the completed project is quoted as £32bn but by the time this is completed this price will have exceeded £100bn as the people who price these contracts for the Government usually don’t have a clue as to what they are doing.

Secondly, the reasons for building this railway are to say the least dubious. This new line will not ease congestion on any of the existing lines simply because it does not serve the same stations.

As for the jobs, the only jobs that will be created will be for constructing this new line, jobs that will disappear upon completion of the work. Any real jobs in manufacturing (the type of jobs we need) can be provided without the new line.

From: P J Gray, Shelley Grove, Sprotborough, Doncaster.

i FULLY concur with the sentiments expressed by your correspondent Pat Mellor (Yorkshire Post, January 14) in which they question the validity of the HS2 project.

To embark on such a costly programme as this at a time when the nation’s finances are in such a parlous state smacks of a high profile, vanity undertaking, albeit artificially conceived. A case of diverting the electorate’s attention from an otherwise lacklustre performance, perhaps?