ANONYMITY in defending HS2 does not sit well.

Those of us who oppose HS2 have thought very hard about the impact on the lives of “local ordinary people”.

The author of the anonymous letter would do well to do likewise.

No concern is shown for the many thousands of people who will lose their homes, farmers who will lose their livelihoods and business owners who will lose their businesses with the subsequent loss of employment for their workers.

Anonymous seeks to persuade us that the West Coast Mainline is nearly full.

A study of the actual passenger numbers and available capacity would show this to be untrue.

Anonymous also seeks to frighten the living daylights out of us by claiming that “thousands of ordinary folk would suffer from construction work with loss of gardens or houses and tens of thousands from traffic delays lasting years”.

Hartford is mentioned, as far as is known there are no plans to widen the cutting here, another attempt by someone who is a proponent of HS2 to scare people.

HS2, if built, will not require any alterations to the line through Hartford.

However Anonymous appears to have no thought to the thousands who would suffer from years of HS2 construction, they are conveniently forgotten.

There is a Network Rail project, which if given the go ahead, would mean that the capacity of the existing network being increased by 40 per cent without the need to build any new track in a straight line across virgin countryside.

That is Digital Signalling.

Which would Anonymous prefer, I wonder?

I wonder if Anonymous has a vested interest in seeing HS2 built?

Finally, upgrading of WCML causing traffic delays that will last years.

The Ultimate PR Scare story. No mention of the traffic delays caused by HS2.

Ewen Simpson Whatcroft