Prof LJS Lesley (Letters, 21 January) appears to believe that all 14 trains per hour planned for HS2 will shuttle between London and Birmingham. There will actually be three HS2 services per hour between London and Birmingham; this is the same number of trains as Virgin run today which, after HS2 is built, should be adapted to improve services to places such as Milton Keynes and Northampton. Even with the proposed reduction in maximum speed, over 95% of passengers will find their journey time to Birmingham reduced by about 26 minutes (Prof Lesley compares with the current fastest time, which is achieved by only one train per day) and many will experience better still because of greater reliability. The fleet size for phase one will be about 60 trains, not 11, because most of them will join existing lines to reach north-west England and Scotland. However, the most significant impact of the proposed reduction in train paths is that the case for the eastern arm (phase 2b to Leeds), already questionable, is seriously undermined. Ten trains per hour are specified for the western arm of HS2, leaving only four to serve Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Nottingham and Derby, which is clearly unrealistic. Mr Grayling would be well advised urgently to brush the dust off existing plans to fully electrify the Midland mainline and to upgrade the east coast mainline.

Paul Birchall

Derby

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