Why west isn’t always the best for high-speed rail link (From York Press)

Why west isn’t always the best for high-speed rail link

10:40am Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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THE article headlined Making Tracks (The Press, March 13) about the future of high-speed rail and its implications for York, quotes Dr Tony Fowkes as saying: “If there were to be only a single line linking London and the north, then the route would probably pass to the west of Leeds, leaving York out.”

Presumably “west of Leeds” means west of the Pennines, too, for it’s hardly likely to go up the middle.

I’ve seen this assumption many times by now: the Government, Network Rail, and others all seem to think it’s a foregone conclusion that the line should go up the west coast.

At first sight that idea seemed madness to me, so I started looking into it in detail.

And the result of all these deliberations? It still seems madness, only even more so. It is remarkable how many arguments there are in favour of going up the Vale of York and through north-east England, but how few emerged in favour of the Department for Transport’s favourite west coast alternative.

The Government and I can’t both be right. Is there anybody out there (York is a railway town, after all) who can explain why going up the west coast is such a good idea? I can make what seems to me a very strong case for doing nothing of the sort.

Alan Robinson, Lindley Street, Holgate, York.