WHILE you can’t blame Chris Grayling for originating HS2, you can blame him and Harrogate MP Andrew Jones (his Transport Minister) for carrying on with it (Letters, February 16).

The problem is that the route chosen for HS2 makes it a complete turkey set to morph into a white elephant.

It simply does not do what it says on the tin. It adds little extra capacity and virtually no connectivity.

Even the price tag can’t be trusted. Ten days ago the word from inside the HS2 bunker was that HS2 phases 1 and 2 will not cost £55 billion but are likely to top £200 billion.

If correct, the already shaky business case is destroyed at a stroke.

Yorkshire’s answer to HS2 is High Speed UK - www.highspeeduk.co.uk - which really does connect the nation.

It does not trash the Chiltern’s AONB or 63 ancient woodlands but goes to the places that people need to get to and saves hundreds of million tonnes of CO2.

You might also like to visit our petition at https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/171945 calling on Government to undertake a design review of HS2.

Quentin Macdonald, Systems engineering principal, High Speed UK, Nether Poppleton, York