• I PREDICTED in various letters to the New Journal that automatic control of trains would make HS2 totally redundant.

On October 7 it was reported in The Times that automatic trains are to be introduced to British railways.

This in-cab computer control, designed by such German companies as Siemens, will mean that trains are guided by computers from central control rooms, much as air traffic control is.

This results in trains travelling 40 per cent closer to each other and 40 per cent faster than driver-controlled trains.

To quote one paragraph: “Govia Thameslink Railway which operates Thameslink said that the technology would lead to shorter journey times and improved safety and that there was no chance of the trains running through a red light.”

This fact makes HS2 completely obsolete.

It clearly becomes a destructive exercise which will produce mayhem in Mornington Crescent, the Regent’s Park estate and Parkway areas of Camden Town and the countryside of the Cotswolds and Warwickshire until 2033.

But there will be immense profits being printed and going into the pockets of developers and politicians. Instead, the cost of HS2 could pay for a modern railway system across the whole country.

When will the dangerous white elephant HS2 be given up?

NICHOLAS WOOD
South Hill Park Gardens, NW3