SIR – How many people currently engaged in trumpeting the case for a high speed line from London to the north know anything about railways?

Rail travel is possibly the most relaxing and civilised form of transport, but this can mask an indisputable fact – the business case for railways doesn’t and never has stacked up.

You simply cannot attract enough customers, who will pay fares at the required level, to sustain the enterprise.

Switzerland’s railways come closest, underwritten by cheapish hydroelectric power and the Swiss government.

The Victorians and Edwardians discovered this harsh reality, quite soon after the railway boom began in the mid-1800s. Before the end of the 19th century companies were failing.

Has anyone spoken to the French to find out how much TGV actually costs the French taxpayer (or us via the EU) and what benefits really accrue?

Railways can and do provide an effective solution to the mass movement of people in and around big cities, but this comes at considerable cost to us, the taxpayer, and this fact needs to be borne in mind when HSR 2 is discussed.

Railways mean subsidies, openly or covertly, and subsides mean government borrowing, and we know where that’s at, don’t we?

Peter Mchugh
Alvechurch